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CROWN    THEOLOGICAL    LIBRARY 


VOL.  XI. 
THE   CHILD   AND   RELIGION 


Crown  UbeolOQical  Xibrars 


WORKS  ALREADY  PUBLISHED 


Vol.  L— BABEL    AND     BIBLE.       By     Dr 

Friedrich  Delitzsch.    5S. 

Vol.  IL— THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST. 

An  Historical  and  Critical  Essay.     By  Paul  Lobstein. 

Vol.  III.— MY     STRUGGLE    FOR    LIGHT. 

Confessions  of  a  Preacher.     By  R.  Wimmer.     3s.  6d. 

Vol.  IV.— LIBERAL    CHRISTIANITY.       Its 

Origin,  Nature,  and  Mission.     By  Jean  R^ville.     4s. 

Vol.  v.— WHAT  IS  CHRISTIANITY?  By 
Adolf  Harnack.    55. 

Vol.  VI.— FAITH  AND  MORALS.  By  W. 
Herrmann.    5s. 

Vol  VII.— EARLY    HEBREW    STORY.      A 

Study  of  the  Origin,  the  Value,  and  the  Historical 
Background  of  the  Legends  of  Israel.  By  John  P. 
Peters,  D.D.     5s. 

Vol.  VIIL— BIBLE  PROBLEMS  AND  THE 
NEW  MATERIAL  FOR  THEIR  SOLUTION. 
By  Prof.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  D.Litt.,  D.D.    5s. 

Vol.  IX.— THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE 
ATONEMENT  AND  ITS  HISTORICAL  EVOLU- 
TION, AND  RELIGION  AND  MODERN  CUL- 
TURE.    By  the  late  Auguste  Sabatier.    4s.  6d. 

Vol.  X.— THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  CON- 
CEPTION OF  CHRIST:  its  Significance  and  Value 
in  the  History  of  Religion.  By  Otto  Pfleiderer. 
38.  6d. 


The 

Child   and    Religion 


Eleven  Essays  by 

Prof.  HENRY  JONES,  M.A.,  LL.D.;  C.  F.  G.  MASTER- 
MAN,  M.A.;  Prof.  GEORGE  T.  LADD,  D.D.,  LL.D.; 
F.  R.  TENNANT,  B.D.,  B.Sc;  Rev.  J.  CYNDDYLAN 
JONES,  D.D.;  Rev.  Canon  H.  HENSLEY  HENSON, 
B.D.;  Rev.  ROBERT  F.  HORTON,  M.A.,  D.D. ;  Rev.  G. 
HILL,  M.A.,  D.D.;  Rev.  J.  J.  THORNTON;  Rev.  Rabbi 
A.  A.  GREEN ;  and  Prof.  JOSEPH  AGAR  BEET,  D.D. 


EDITED    BY 

THOMAS   STEPHENS,  B.A. 


OF 

WILLIAMS   &   NORGATE 

14   HENRIETTA   STREET,    COVENT  GARDEN,    LONDON 

NEW  YORK:    G.   P.   PUTNAM'S  SONS 

1905 


--'  ( 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Introduction         ......  7 

I.  The    Child    and    Heredity.       By   Professor 

Henry  Jones,  M.A.,  LL,D,,  Glasgow     .  .  37 

II.  The     Child     and     its    Environment.       By 

C.  F,  G.  Masterman,  M,A 81 

III.  The    Child's    Capacity    for    Religion.       By 

George  Trumbull  Ladd,  D.D.,  LL.D,,  Pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy  in  the  U?iiversity  of  Yale        1 20 

IV.  The  Child  and  Sin.     By  F.  R,  Tennant,  B.D., 

B.Sc 154 

V.  The     Conversion      of     Children.       By     J, 

Cynddylan  Jones,  D,D.        .  .  .  .        185 

VI.  The  Religious  Training  of  the  Child  in 
THE  Church  of  England.  By  H,  Hensley 
Henson,  B.D.,  Canon  of  Westminster     .  .        220 

VII.  The  Religious  Training  of  Children  in  the 
Free  Churches.  By  Robert  F.  Horton, 
M.A.,  D.D.,  Hampstead       ....       257 

VIII.  Baptists  and  the  Children.     By  George  Hill, 

M,A,,  D.D.,  Nottingham       ....        285 
5 

164945 


Contents 


PAGE 


IX,  New  Church  Training.     By  J.  J.   Thornton, 

Glasgow 308 

X.  The  Religious  Training  of  Children  among 
THE  Jews.  By  Rabbi  A,  A.  Green,  H amp- 
stead  332 

XI.  The  Child  and  the  Bible.     By  Joseph  Agar 

Beet,  D,D 344 


The  Child  and  Religion 

INTRODUCTION 

This  book  is  the  outcome  of  a  friendly  dis- 
cussion, at  a  deacons'  meeting,  on  the  place 
of  the  child  in  the  Christian  Church.  Several 
children  had  recently,  as  the  result  of  attending 
services  for  young  people,  responded  to  the 
claims  of  the  Saviour's  love,  and  had  expressed 
a  desire  to  become  His  disciples.  Now  the 
question  arose  among  the  officers  of  the  Church 
as  to  the  proper  attitude  of  the  Church  towards 
these  children.  Should  they  be  admitted  forth- 
with to  the  Lord's  Table?  Should  they  be 
enrolled  as  members  of  the  Church  without 
delay  ?  Had  they  a  right  to  Church  privileges 
by  virtue  of  their  personal  devotion  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?     Ranging  from  eight  to 


8         The  Child  and  Religion 

twelve  years  of  age,  were  they  too  young  to 
undertake  the  responsibiUties  of  Church  fellow- 
ship ?  Simple  as  these  questions  must  appear, 
when  they  came  to  be  considered  in  the  light 
of  Church  tradition,  custom,  and  administra- 
tion, they  soon  grew  into  a  complicated 
problem,  and  even  series  of  problems.  The 
matter  was  looked  at  from  the  points  of  view 
of  parent,  child,  teacher.  Church,  and  pastor, 
but  was  not  settled  to  anybody's  satisfaction 
at  that  meeting.  A  further  inquiry  became 
imperative.  Our  knowledge  of  New  Testa- 
ment teaching  had  to  be  revised ;  a  wider 
survey  of  facts  had  to  be  taken,  with  the 
aid  of  Church  history  and  modern  research ; 
a  more  accurate  method  of  observation  had 
to  be  adopted,  for  the  purpose  of  eliminating 
propositions  having  only  a  limited  scope,  and 
discovering  propositions  of  wide  comprehen- 
siveness, and  having  universal  validity.  In 
a  word,  principles  and  laws,  at  the  root  of 
the  matter,  and  governing  the  whole  situation, 
had  to  be  found. 


Introduction  9 

The  aim  of  our  later  inquiry  reached  still 
further.  Behind  the  question  of  the  children's 
fitness  for,  and  right  to,  Church  status,  lay 
the  larger  question  of  the  spiritual  union  of 
the  children  with  the  Saviour;  and  behind 
that  again  were  those  undeveloped  root- 
elements  of  their  religious  consciousness,  and 
that  general  capacity  for  religion  from  which 
their  religious  faith  must  issue,  and  also  the 
working  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  child's 
soul.  In  this  difficult  and  obscure  region, 
if  at  all  possible,  must  our  investigations 
be  made.  Profiting  by  the  results  of  the 
psychologist's  study  of  the  child,  we  must 
try  to  look  from  the  circumference  into  the 
centre  of  the  child's  soul,  and  also,  placing 
ourselves  at  that  centre,  look  out  from  it 
at  the  circumference  of  religious  experience. 
This  is  no  easy  task,  for  religion  is  usually 
studied  in  adult  life,  and  not  in  the  life  of  the 
child.  Here  is  a  field  almost  unworked.  In 
the  Sunday  School  and  in  the  pulpit  the 
Christian  faith   has   been   interpreted   to   the 


lo       The  Child  and  ReHgion 

child  with  success  ;  but  seldom  has  any  attempt 
been  made  to  elucidate  the  child's  religious 
faith,  or  to  understand  religion  with  the  help 
of  the  child's  history  and  experience.  The 
methods  of  science  have  scarcely  ever  been 
applied  to  this  phenomenon  of  a  child's 
religious  consciousness.  Psychology  has  led 
up  to  it,  but  has  left  it  to  be  dealt  with  by 
theology  and  philosophy. 

Published  works  on  the  subject  are  very 
few.  Psychological  essays  written  more 
particularly  in  the  interests  of  educational 
theories  we  have  in  abundance ;  echoes  of 
bygone  controversies  on  Infant  Communion, 
and  Infant  Baptism,  we  have  also ;  but  no 
serious  attempt  has  yet  been  made  in  this 
country  to  reconcile  theological  thought  on 
Infant  Salvation  with  the  established  con- 
clusions of  modern  science.  To  some  extent, 
then,  this  work  is  a  pioneer. 

The  original  scheme  for  a  book,  or  series  of 
books,  which  should  cover  the  whole  ground, 
stood  as  follows  : — 


Introduction  1 1 

I.  The  Child  and  Heredity:   a  study  in 

Biology. 
IT.  The  Child  and  Environment :  a  study 
in  Sociology. 

III.  The  Child's  Capacity  for  Religion :  a 

study  in  Psychology. 

IV.  The  Child  and  Sin :  a  study  in  Theo- 

logy. 
V.  The  Child  and  the  Saviour:   a  study 

in  Soteriology. 
VI.  The  Child  and  the  Church  :  a  study  in 

Ecclesiology. 
A  volume  might  well  have  been  devoted  to 
each  of  these  six  sections ;  but  practical  con- 
siderations attending  publication  made  it 
advisable  to  limit  the  extent  of  the  v^ork  to 
a  collection  of  short  essays  on  these  several 
themes.  The  original  plan  has  been  adhered 
to  in  the  main,  though  a  few  modifications 
have  become  necessary. 

It  was  clear  enough  that  no  one  individual 
could  be  expected  to  write  with  fulness  of 
knowledge,   and   to   his   own  satisfaction,  on 


12       The  Child  and   Religion 

so  wide  a  range  of  topics,  so  the  essays  were 
entrusted  to  specialists  who  were  known  to  be 
masters  of  their  own  subject.  The  chapters 
are  representative  in  the  sense  that  they  stand 
for  types  of  thought  prevalent  in  the  worlds 
of  science  and  theology.  Each  writer  has  had 
a  free  hand,  and  is  responsible  for  no  other 
part  of  the  book  than  that  which  he  has 
himself  written.  Though  the  work  is  divided 
into  separate  sections,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
subject  cannot  be  arranged  into  so  many  air- 
tight compartments.  A  measure  of  inter- 
dependence and  interaction  is  observable 
throughout,  securing  a  degree  of  unity  for 
the  whole  treatment. 

Though  the  work  appears  at  a  time  when 
the  old  controversy  concerning  the  aims  and 
methods  of  religious  instruction  in  day  schools 
is  once  more  raging,  it  is  just  as  well  to  say 
that  our  object  has  not  been  polemical. 
Theological  and  ecclesiastical  disputations 
have  not  been  prominently  before  the  minds 
of  the  authors.     They  have  sought  rather  to 


Introduction  1 3 

unfold  those  things  which  he  deeper  than 
opposing  opinions,  and  on  which  rests  what- 
ever of  truth  there  may  be  in  the  varying 
contentions.  The  subject-matter  of  a  few  of 
the  essays,  however,  is  so  inevitably  connected 
with  an  actual  situation  that  it  would  have 
been  affectation  to  pretend  to  ignore  the 
latter  altogether. 

The  questions  raised  by  the  writers  have 
more  than  a  speculative  interest.  Here  are 
some  of  those  questions  :  "  What  has  modern 
science  to  teach  regarding  the  doctrine  of 
heredity  as  applied  to  the  human  child  ? " 
"Have  psychology,  physiology,  and  biology 
any  new  light  to  give  ? "  "  What  has  sociology 
to  teach  about  environment  in  relation  to  the 
religious  consciousness  of  the  child  ? "  "  Is 
religion  a  natural  and  normal  product  of  a 
child's  soul  ? "  "  Is  a  child  bound  to  be 
religious  by  its  constitution  ? "  "  Is  there  a 
latent  capacity  in  every  child  for  the  Divine  ? " 
"  Can  we  resolve  a  child's  religious  experience 
wholly  into  a  matter  of  instinct,  or  of  impulse, 


14       The  Child  and  Religion 

or  of  the  '  Subliminal '  ?  "  "  How  does  the 
doctrine  of  the  Divine  Immanence  affect  a 
child's  religion  ? "  "  Does  God's  Spirit  influ- 
ence and  instruct  the  child's  spirit,  even  before 
the  child  can  grasp  the  truth  ? "  "  Are  all 
children  born  good  ? "  "  How  does  the  child 
become  sinful  ?  "  "  What  truth  is  there  in  the 
doctrine  of  *  original  sin '  ? "  "  Is  a  child's 
nature  sinful  ? "  "  Is  the  '  taint '  of  sin  trans- 
missible ? "  "  Has  the  child,  in  infancy,  any 
consciousness  of  sin  ? "  "  Are  a  child's  evil 
tendencies  simply  the  tendencies  of  the  stock, 
derived  from,  and  common  with  those  of  the 
brutes,  and  in  themselves  neither  good  nor  bad, 
but  only  non-moral  ? "  "  When  do  a  child's 
actions  become  moral  ? "  "  Does  a  child  bear  the 
image  of  God  ? "  "  How  has  the  Fall  affected 
that  image?"  "Is  conversion  necessary  to 
regeneration?"  "Are  children  born  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  ? "  "  Can  children  grow  up 
into  maturity  within  the  kingdom  without 
ever  being  consciously  alienated  from  God  ? " 
"  How   is   baptism   related  to  the  child's  re- 


Introduction  1 5 

generation  ? "  "  Is  the  Catechetical  method 
of  teaching  rehgious  truth  the  right  one  ? " 
"How  should  the  Bible  be  used  in  the  Day 
School  and  the  Sunday  School?"  "How 
should  parents  teach  religion  to  their  children 
at  home  ? " 

These  are  fair  samples  of  the  questions  raised 
by  the  writers  and  answered  in  these  essays. 
With  so  many  writers  a  diversity  of  views  was 
to  be  expected.  The  points  of  agreement, 
however,  far  outnumber  the  points  of  diver- 
gence. The  variations  are  principally  on  the 
surface,  having  to  do  with  forms  of  expression. 
Deeper  down  there  is  harmony  and  concord. 
Doubtless,  point  of  view  is  responsible  for 
much  apparent  contradiction.  Take,  for 
example,  the  essays  by  Canon  Henson  and 
Dr  Horton.  It  is  obvious  that  the  two 
authors  are  looking  at  much  the  same  set  of 
facts,  but  from  a  widely  different  standpoint. 
And  yet  they  draw  very  near  to  each  other 
in  essentials.  Or,  take  again  the  essays  on 
"Sin"  and  "Conversion,"     Mr  Tennant  is  a 


1 6      The  Child  and  Religion 

believer  in  the  evolutionary  theory,  while  Dr 
Jones  is  an  orthodox  Evangelical  theologian 
with  Calvinistic  leanings.  It  is  the  object  of  the 
former  to  account  for  the  "  origin  "  of  sin  in  the 
child,  on  scientific  grounds,  while  the  latter 
describes  God's  method  of  dealing  with  sin  in 
the  child.  Both  place  stress  on  the  fact  of  sin. 
Only,  one  speaks  the  language  of  physiology 
and  biology,  the  other  uses  the  terminology 
of  theology  and  the  Bible. 

Is  the  child  sinful  by  nature  ?  Not  only  is 
the  child  guilty  of  sinful  acts,  but  is  the  child 
by  nature  sinful  ?  The  theologians  emphasise 
"original  sin"  in  accounting  for  sin,  while 
science  speaks  of  "heredity"  and  "environ- 
ment." There  have  been  dogmatic  develop- 
ments of  the  theological  idea  which  have  had 
to  be  rejected.  Theologians  have  exaggerated 
and  elaborated,  and  so  have  made  the  thought 
repugnant.  But  still,  the  derived  sinful  bias 
of  human  nature  is  a  fact,  not  a  dogma.  "  A 
corrupt  tree  cannot  bring  forth  good  fruit." 
Serious    observers    have   recognised   that  the 


Introduction  1 7 

''  taint "  is  transmitted.  Only  a  superficial  view 
of  humanity,  or  an  inadequate  conception  of 
morality  can  jauntily  say  that  "  all  children 
are  born  good."  The  modern  view  of  things 
is  marked  by  an  even  stronger  sense  than  in 
former  days  of  the  reality  and  universal 
presence  of  sin.  The  flimsy  optimism  which 
led  men  to  regard  this  as  the  best  of  all  worlds, 
and  to  make  light  of  the  facts  which  contra- 
dicted their  pleasing  hypothesis,  has  vanished. 
To-day  there  is  even  an  oppressive  sense  of  the 
weight  of  the  sin  which  burdens  humanity. 
We  have  disposed  of  the  shallow  views  of 
Rousseau  respecting  the  inherent  goodness  of 
children,  and  have  ceased  to  dream  of  a 
perfectibility  based  on  education,  and  on 
altered  social  and  political  conditions. 
Pelagian  views  of  human  nature  are  dis- 
credited. Kant's  deeper  and  truer  note  is 
accepted,  and  we  are  forced  to  acknowledge 
the  presence  of  a  radical  evil.  The  question 
with  us  to-day  is  not,  "  Is  humanity  sinful  ? " 
but,    "  How    did    sin    penetrate    into    human 


1 8       The  Child  and  Religion 

nature?"  "By  the  Fall  (as  the  Bible 
teaches),  or  by  the  dominion  of  the  brute 
element  in  man's  being  (as  the  evolutionary 
philosophy  affirms)  ?  "  Much  has  yet  to  be  said 
on  this  important  point,  both  by  science  and 
theology.  The  essays  of  Professor  Henry  Jones, 
Professor  Ladd,Mr  Tennant,and  Dr  Cynddylan 
Jones,  contain  valuable  suggestions  towards  an 
understanding  of  the  real  question  at  issue. 

In  these  days,  when  Parliament  is  seriously 
discussing  the  case  of  underfed  children  in 
large  towns  and  cities,  and  all  the  churches  are 
taking  to  social  work,  Mr  Masterman's  exposi- 
tion of  the  new  environment  and  its  bearing 
on  character  will  be  welcomed.  As  instru- 
ments for  the  extension  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  on  the  earth,  the  churches  will  have  to 
deal  with  phases  of  life  that  have  not  in  the 
past  come  within  the  scope  of  their  activities. 
A  grand  social  ideal, — a  redeemed  world, 
where  Jesus  is  the  King  universally  obeyed, 
and  where  this  obedience  brings  universal 
blessing — is     gradually     dawning     on     them. 


Introduction  19 

This  blessing  includes  physical  well-being. 
Physical  conditions  go  far  to  determine  moral 
progress.  The  physical  and  the  moral  act  and 
react  on  each  other.  So  physical  questions 
have  a  religious  significance.  When,  for 
instance,  we  read  that  over-crowding  produces 
an  alarming  increase  in  infantile  mortality,  we 
begin  to  realise  that  the  fact  has  a  moral  as 
well  as  a  physical  meaning.  Science  and 
religion  have  their  joint  responsibilities  and 
duties.  Bodies  no  less  than  souls  have  their 
place  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  To  save 
the  soul  is  of  supremest  importance.  But 
souls  dwell  in  bodies.  The  object  of  the 
Saviour  seems  to  be,  not  so  much  to  fill 
heaven  with  saved  souls,  but  to  save  souls  and 
bodies  for  earth,  as  the  best  preparation  for  the 
heaven  hereafter.  This  view  has  taken  firm 
hold  of  the  modern  Churches  and  is  widening 
their  sympathies  and  operations.  All  human 
interests  are  regarded  as  component  parts  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  The  Gospel  is  seen  to 
be  essentially  a  social  Gospel.     It   is  for  the 


20       The  Child  and  Religion 

individual  primarily,  but  is  not  to  stop  there. 
We  do  the  Gospel  a  grievous  wrong  by  giving 
it  merely  an  individualistic  interpretation.  A 
saved  man  becomes  a  saving  agency.  In  no 
department  of  life  may  the  beneficent  influence 
-of  Christianity  be  of  greater  service  to-day 
than  in  the  home,  in  the  preparation  of  an 
environment  which  shall  help  on  the  growth 
of  Christian  character  in  the  children.  Alas  ! 
how  many  houses  there  are  which  are  no 
homes  for  the  children. 

It  will  be  difficult  perhaps  to  classify  Mr 
Thornton's  essay  on  the  doctrine  of  Sweden- 
borg ;  but  it  will  have  a  value  all  its  own. 
We  cannot  find  a  place  for  it  among  our 
accepted  psychological  and  theological  theories, 
but  it  contains  suggestions  as  striking  as  they 
are  unfamiliar. 

Mr  Green's  message  from  Judaism  will  be 
read  with  the  deepest  interest,  as  will  Dr 
Hill's  statement  of  the  attitude  of  the  Baptists 
towards  children,  and  Dr  Beet's  tribute  to 
the  Bible  as  The  Book  for  the  child. 


Introduction  2 1 

With  many  probably  the  ''  burning  question  " 
will  be  the  child's  status  before  God,  and  its 
need  of  conversion.  This  is  referred  to  in 
several  of  the  essays.  The  roots  of  many 
doctrines  and  practices  are  found  here.  The 
editor,  with  a  view  to  giving  further  complete- 
ness to  the  book,  has  secured  written  opinions 
on  the  matter  from  representatives  of  many 
schools  of  thought.  The  first  letter  is  from  the 
Bishop  of  Durham,  an  Evangelical  leader : — 

Perhaps  I  may  put  thus  the  view  that  I  think  would 
be  held  by  many  of  whom  I  am  one. 

(1)  The  "  image  of  God,""  though  broken  by  the  Fall, 
and  needing  divine  grace,  absolutely,  to  restore  it  to  its 
integrity,  lies  in  every  human  child. 

(2)  Such,  however,  is  the  damage  wrought  by  that 
deep  mystery  we  call  the  Fall,  so  sore  a  break  of  con- 
tiimity  in  the  filial  attitude  does  it  bring,  that  Scripture 
seems  plainly  to  speak  of  a  regeneration  as  necessary  for 
every  human  being  if  it  is  to  enjoy  that  sonship  which 
is  to  be  sonship  indeed.  It  seems  to  me  clear  that 
the  New  Testament,  in  the  vast  majority  of  passages, 
when  it  speaks  of  "children  of  God'"  (and  similar 
phrases),  speaks  of  human  beings  who  have  been  thus 
?'egenerated. 


22       The  Child  and  ReUgion 

(3)  When  and  how  this  takes  place  is  wholly  another 
question.  Conceivably  the  work  may  be  wrought  in 
unconscious  infancy,  or  much  later.  It  may  evidence 
itself  by  the  gentlest  growth  of  grace  from  babyhood, 
or  by  a  critical  and  intense  conversion  in  consciousness. 
Evangelical  churchmen  as  a  rule  do  not  connect  it 
necessarily  with  the  actual  time  of  baptism^  though 
they  believe  that  baptism  is  related  to  it  as  God's  seal 
upon  God's  deed  and  gift,  impressed  sometimes  before 
the  gift  has  been  accepted  and  sometimes  after. 

(4)  Conversion  we  should  never  narrowly,  in  our 
school,  define.  I  often  say  that  it  is  far  less  important 
to  know  when  you  crossed  the  frontier,  and  how  you  did 
it,  than  to  be  sure  that  to-day  you  are  on  the  right  side. 
But  there  is  a  sense  in  which  we  hold  conversion  to  be 
always  necessary,  believing  that  fallen  human  nature,  in 
the  individual,  has  always  (if  I  may  put  it  so)  its  face 
selfward  and  away  from  God,  apart  from  His  changing 
grace.  So  that  wherever  man  has  his  will  toward  God  in 
Christ  there  has  been  a  "  change  round  **''  (con-version)^  at 
whatever  rate  and  at  whatever  time  it  has  taken  place. 

(5)  All  this  theory  meantime  leaves  us,  I  trust,  quite 
free  to  exercise  the  most  loving  "judgment  of  charity*" 
in  every  individual  case.  I  would  always  assume  the 
child  of  a  Christian  home  to  be  actually  as  well  as 
potentially  a  true  child  of  God,  a  being  who  has  met 
our  heavenly  Father^s  advance  with  heart  and  will, 
until  I  am  compelled  to  think  the  contrary. 


Introduction  2  3 

Generally,  and  little  caring  whether  it  seems  perfectly 
logical,  I  recognise  as  scriptural  the  position  that  the 
race  bears  the  image  of  God,  though  fatally  broken, 
and  that  from  that  point  of  view  we  may  speak  of  a 
filial  aspect  in  every  human  being,  but  that  the 
individual  needs  a  regeneration  if  he  is  to  be  a  child 
of  God  in  the  sense  emphasised  (and  commonly  in  view) 
in  the  Bible. 

Next    comes    the    Hon.    and   Rev.    J.    G. 

Adderley,  writing  as  a  High- Churchman  : — 

I  think  all  human  beings  are  the  sons  of  the  All- 
Father  God. 

But  sin  ha^  entered  into  the  race  and  estranged  them 
from  the  Father,  so  that  the  life  of  sonship  may  have 
ceased  for  all  practical  purposes.  Christ,  who  is  the  son 
of  God  from  all  eternity,  and  has  always  lived  personally 
in  the  attitude  of  sonship  tow^ards  the  Father,  came  out 
from  heaven  and  took  human  nature.  In  that  human 
nature  He  manifested  the  true  life  of  sonship,  that  all 
men  might  see  and  know  what  the  true  life  is  when 
lived  in  complete  obedience  to  the  will  of  God.  More 
than  this.  He  gave  men  the  right  to  become  the  sons  of 
God  in  Him.  He  provided  an  antidote  for  sin  and 
enabled  men  to  rise  to  a  true  recognition  of  and  realisa- 
tion of  true  sonship,  which  sin  had  thwarted  and 
vitiated. 

In   His   parable   of  the  prodigal    son    He  spoke   of 


24       The  Child  and  Religion 

the  return  to  the  Father  as  a  coming  to  one's  true 
self. 

The  Atonement  was  effected  by  Christ's  real  life  of 
obedience  unto  death,  by  which  He  representatively  on 
behalf  of  all  men  made  the  true  Godward  approach. 
By  grace,  that  is,  union  with  Himself,  He  takes  our 
humanity  up  with  His  own  and  presents  us  to  the  Father. 
The  Father  accepted  Christ  as  the  Son  in  whom  He  is 
well  pleased,  and  He  accepts  us  by  virtue  of  our  union 
or  association  with  the  Christ  life  of  perfect  obedience. 
He  looks  on  us  lost  men  as  found  in  Christ.  He 
justifies  us  and  we  have  peace  with  Him  in  Christ.  Our 
lives  are  brought  once  more  into  harmony  with  God ; 
we  become  in  very  truth  His  sons  ;  by  the  Spirit,  that 
is,  by  the  union  with  the  Christ  life  effected  by  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  us,  we  are  able  to  cry,  Abba,  Father, 
and  to  live  as  God's  sons. 

Baptism  is  the  normal  way  by  which  each  human 
life  is  taken  into  union  with  Christ  and  incorporated 
into  the  family  of  God  in  very  truth,  and  registered  as 
subjects  to  God  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven. 

But  the  germ  of  living  sonship  may  remain,  and 
very  often  does  remain,  unfructified.  There  is  needed 
faith  on  the  part  of  the  baptized  and  a  converted  will 
that  acts  in  union  with  the  Divine  will.  If  there  be 
this  the  life  of  sonship  prevails  over  the  deadly  desire 
of  the  "  flesh,"  which  is  human  nature  trying  to  live 
apart  from  the  Father. 


Introduction  2  5 


A  little  child  has  all  the  elements  of  perfect  sonship 
in  him.  He  is  the  "greatest  in  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven.""  His  pure  life  is  like  a  clean  slate  upon 
which  the  true  life  can  be  written.  A  man  must 
get  back  to  that  pure  state  and  begin  afresh  if,  having 
wandered,  he  would  come  back  to  the  kingdom,  or 
be  restored  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  family  life 
of  Heaven.  The  Church  of  England  takes  every 
child  and  baptizes  him  in  the  Name  of  God,  assures 
him  that  he  is  thereby  claimed  for  Christ,  united 
to  His  perfect  humanity,  enfolded  in  the  Father's 
family,  incorporated  in  the  kingdom.  He  is  told 
that  he  belongs  to  God,  that  he  is  in  a  "  state  of 
salvation,""  that  is,  he  is  where,  if  he  remains,  he 
will  certainly  be  delivered  from  all  taint  of  sin  and 
able  to  live  the  life  of  a  free  and  healthy  son  of  God. 

If,  in  spite  of  this,  through  the  wiles  of  evil  spirit, 
the  allm^ements  of  the  world  and  the  lust  of  the  flesh, 
he  wanders,  the  Church  in  the  name  of  Christ  bids 
him  turn  and  be  converted,  surrender  his  will  to  God, 
accept  the  saving,  delivering  power  of  Jesus,  and  join 
the  family  circle  once  more  to  live  in  freedom  and  peace. 

I  think  the  teaching  of  our  Catechism  is  designed  to 
make  children  feel  that  they  need  not  sin  at  all.  They 
are  encouraged  to  feel  themselves  the  children  of  God. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  warned  against  the  dangers 
of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  But  these  they  have 
renounced — they  have  nothing  to  do  with  them  as  such. 


26       The  Child  and   Religion 

Just  as  they  need  not  have  cholera  if  they  keep  clean,  so 
they  need  not  sin.  If,  however,  they  do  sin,  then  they 
are  bidden  to  repent  and  turn.  If  they  have  shifted  the 
centre  of  their  being  from  God  to  self,  then  they  must 
once  more  re-establish  God  on  the  throne  of  their  hearts. 

Children  are  to  enjoy  life.  Christian  children  are  to 
revel  in  the  happiness  of  the  heavenly  home  circle. 
They  are  to  be  the  healthy-minded  ones,  brimming  over 
with  the  exuberance  of  their  fresh  lives  in  Christ, 
about  their  Father's  business,  in  their  Father's  house. 
Outside  in  the  world  there  is  danger,  there  are  men 
and  women,  even  boys  and  girls,  who  are  living  their 
lives  apart  from  the  Father ;  but  this  is  death,  not  life, 
this  is  moral  sickness,  not  health.  Let  them  keep 
away  from  the  infection.  Let  them  go  in  and  out 
and  find  pasture  in  the  fold  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 
He  will  carry  the  lambs  in  His  arms. 

Conversion  is  not  necessary  for  those  who  are  living 
the  converted  life,  and  all  who  are  in  Christ  and  have 
not  torn  themselves  away  from  His  keeping  are  living 
that  converted  life — the  life  of  wills  that  work  in  union 
with  God's  will,  the  Christ  life,  the  life  of  the  sons  of 
God,  whether  little  sons  or  big  sons. 

Professor  James  Orr,  D.D.,  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  says : — 

(1)  The  Presbyterian  Church  believes  in  the  need  of 
spiritual  regeneration  for  all — children  included. 


Introduction  27 

(2)  Regeneration  may  be  from  the  womb,  and  so  may 
be  an  element  in  consciousness  from  the  first. 

(3)  The  only  test  of  real  regeneration  is  the  turning 
of  the  heart   (affections  and  will)  to  God. 

(4)  Even  in  the  case  of  a  child  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  Divine  grace  from  infancy  there  is 
usually  (though  the  process  may  be  gradual  and  less 
sensible)  a  time  of  crisis  or  of  conscious  realisation 
and  decision  for  Christ. 

(5)  Believing  parents  are  certainly  entitled  to  plead 
the  covenant  promises  of  God  for  their  children,  but 
His  grace  is  no  way  confined  to  such  children.  In 
many  ways  otherwise  the  children  of  unbelieving 
parents  are  at  enormous  disadvantage  (training, 
example,  home  influences,  etc.). 

Rev.  John  Watson,  D.D.  (Ian  Maclaren), 
also  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  writes  : — 

With  reference  to  your  questions,  I  hold  that  a  child 
may  be  born  into  the  kingdom  of  God  when  it  is  born 
into  the  world,  and  grow  up  within  God's  family,  as 
did  Jeremiah  and  John  Baptist.  I  also  hold  that  the 
conscious  crisis  called  conversion  is  not  necessary  to 
regeneration,  for  the  opposite  would  mean  that  everyone 
had  to  go  astray  and  be  brought  back  to  God  at  a 
distinct  point  in  his  life,  which  is  not  the  case. 

The  next  letter  is  from  Rev.  J.  Scott 
Lidgett,   M.A.,    a    representative   Wesleyan. 


28       The  Child  and  Religion 

Writing  of  the   ministers   of  his   church,  he 
says : — 

The  more  characteristic  view  would,  I  think,  be  that 
a  child  "  may  grow  to  maturity,*"  as  you  say,  "  entirely 
within  the  kingdom  of  God.""  But  there  might  be  some 
who  would  urge  the  doctrine  of  conversion  to  the  point  of 
practically  excluding  the  unconverted  person  from  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  more  thoughtful  would  hold 
the  belief  that  the  child  grows  up  within  the  kingdom 
of  God  without  abandoning  a  pronounced  view  as  to 
the  need  of  conversion.  They  would  hold,  I  think, 
that  the  operation  upon  the  heart  of  the  spiritual 
influences  which  lead  to  conversion  show  that  the 
person  influenced  by  them  is  already  in  a  very  real 
sense  within  the  kingdom  of  God,  where  these  influences 
operate.  At  the  same  time  they  would  urge  that  this 
very  fact  leads  to  the  necessity  and  supplies  the  power 
of  a  conscious  and  deliberate  surrender  to  Christ, 
including  both  penitence  and  faith. 

Principal  Forsyth,  D.D.,  of  the  Hackney 
College  (Congregational),  gives  briefly  his 
views : — 

I  can  only  say  in  brief  that  the  position  held  by  most 
Congregationalists  would  be  that  children  are  born 
into  a  redeemed  world  and  so  far  are  members  of  the 
kingdom.     If  brought   up   under    true    Christian    in- 


Introduction  29 

fluences  the  conversion  required  may  be  gradual, 
unconscious,  and  imperceptible,  but  as  those  Christian 
influences,  especially  in  the  home,  seem  to  be  declining, 
the  need  for  palpable  conversion  becomes  more  clear. 

Rev.  R.  J.  Campbell,  M.A.,  City  Temple 
(Congregationalist),  answers  our  inquiry 
thus : — 

Though  great  differences  of  opinion  exist  in  the 
Nonconformist  Churches  on  the  subject  of  the  child  and 
religion,  I  believe  that  most  of  the  members  of  my 
denomination  would  answer  your  questions  thus  : — 

(1)  Is  the  child  born  in  the  kingdom  ?     Yes. 

(2)  Is  conversion  necessary  to  make  it  a  child  of  God  ? 
No. 

(3)  Are  all  children  in  a  state  of  favour  with  God  ?  Yes. 

(4)  Are  all  unconverted  outside  the  kingdom  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question  depends  upon  the  moral  con- 
sciousness of  the  child. 

(5)  May  they  grow  up  within  the  kingdom  without 
consciously  being  alienated  from  God  ?  Yes.  Many 
thousands  do  so.  Their  spiritual  history  is  a  develop- 
ment rather  than  a  revolution. 

Rev.  Owen  Thomas,  M.A.  (Congrega- 
tionalist), writes : — 

(1)  Is  the  child  born  in  the  kingdom  ?  Yes.  Christ 
claims  the  children  as  He  has  redeemed  them, 


30       The  Child  and  ReUgion 

(2)  Is  conversion  necessary  to  make  it  a  child  of  God  ? 
Yes,  but  it  need  not  be  sudden  or  revolutionary,  but, 
as  in  most  cases,  gradual  and  unconscious. 

(S)  Are  all  children  in  a  state  of  favour  with  God  ? 
Yes. 

(4)  Are  all  unconverted  outside  the  kingdom  ?     No. 

(5)  May  they  grow  up  within  the  kingdom  without 
being  consciously  alienated  from  God  ?     Yes. 

Rev.  John  Lewis  (Baptist),  says: — 

The  question,  "  Are  children  born  in  the  kingdom  .?'*'  is 
best  answered,  it  seems  to  me,  by  first  remembering 
that  the  kingdom  is  essentially  free,  i,e,  sl  body  of  those 
who,  belonging  to  a  rebel  race,  by  an  act  of  their  own 
will,  have  voluntarily  entered  on  the  service  of  the  King. 
From  this  point  of  view  I  cannot  see  how  anyone  can 
be  in  the  kingdom  until  he  is  old  enough  to  exercise 
his  own  choice,  and  has  by  an  act  of  faith  and  love 
surrendered  to  Christ.  I  believe  this  choice,  which 
from  the  human  side  we  call  conversion,  is  possible  at  a 
very  early  age,  and  often  takes  place  before  the  subject 
of  it  is  fully  conscious  of  everything  that  has  happened. 
It  should  be  expected  in  very  little  children,  who  can 
often  understand  what  sin  is  and  what  forgiveness  means 
far  better  than  many  suppose,  and  should  be  regarded 
as  the  normal  experience  of  child  life  in  every  household 
where  the  little  ones  are  brought,  not  to  any  ceremony, 
but  to  the  living  Christ,  in  prayer  and  faith, 


Introduction  3 1 

Rev.  F.  W.  Stanley  expresses  the  views  of 
the  Unitarians  thus  : — 


The  child  comes  to  our  earth  from  the  hand  of  God 
with  a  fresh  mind  and  a  pure  heart,  and  evokes  our 
reverence  for  the  mystery  and  sanctity  of  hfe. 

The  little  one  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  child  of  wrath, 
for  it  has  wonderful  and  fair  capacities,  and  where  all 
influences  favour  a  righteous  development,  it  may  be 
led  to  admire  and  cleave  to  holy  things. 

Though  the  child's  nature  is  marked  by  simplicity 
and  trustfulness,  it  does  not  at  first  evince  the  perfection 
it  may  ultimately  attain,  so  that  its  life's  work  is  to 
change  defect  into  completeness. 

It  is,  however,  impossible  for  us  to  be  blind  to  the 
differences  of  human  inheritance.  The  child,  born  of 
a  line  of  saintly  men,  probably  has  predispositions  to 
virtue  and  aspiration,  which  are  wanting  in  the  off*- 
spring  of  the  sensual  and  abandoned.  These  differences 
are  mysterious  and  of  very  solemn  moment,  for  some- 
times opposing  forces  seem  almost  too  strong  for  the 
struggling  will.  And  then  the  upward  look  is  diverted 
by  the  enticements  of  the  common  world,  and  base  and 
mundane  things  absorb,  or  lead  astray. 

God  touches  the  spirit  and  awakens  it,  or  recalls  it. 

It  is  the  power  of  God  that  progressively  awakens  in 
us  ideas  and  ideals,  which  lift  us  above  selfishness  and 
sensuality,  and  by  their  attractive  beauty,  and  by  their 


32       The  Child  and  ReUgion 

felt  authority  prompt  us  and  help  us  to  ascend  to  a 
purer  and  higher  life.  This  inspiration  and  help  come 
to  us  from  the  free  grace  of  the  Father  within  us ;  and 
it  is  our  part  not  to  resist,  but  to  yield  ourselves  to 
these  Divine  influences,  which  are  kindled  by  God''s  love, 
and  which,  if  followed,  bring  us  into  closer  intimacy 
with  Him. 

Our  inheritance  embraces  the  treasure  that  has  come 
from  Jesus  and  the  saints  of  the  generations;  we  are 
akin  to  Him,  and  we  should  all  be  able  to  enter  into 
the  blessing  that  has  been  set  before  us.  In  some 
measure  we  should  all  strive  to  attain. 

Religious  lives  may  be,  and  have  been  lived  away  from 
Jesus,  but  we  find  in  His  bequest  to  the  Western  world 
all  that  seems  highest  in  our  conception,  and  that  most 
commends  itself  to  our  conscience  in  love  and  service. 
Apart  from  His  exemplification  of  the  Divine  will,  we 
appear  unable  to  reach  that  which  we  are  constrained 
to  account  most  holy. 

The  diversity  of  views  expressed  above 
will  convince  many  how  needful  is  an  honest 
revision  of  doctrine  on  the  whole  subject  of 
Child  Salvation.  A  readiness  to  receive  into 
fellowship  disciples  of  tender  years  is  getting 
more  common  in  all  the  churches.  Baptists 
immerse  quite  young  children,  on  evidence  of 


Introduction  3  3 

faith  in  Christ ;  others  who  baptize  infants  are 
putting  greater  stress  on  the  need  of  regenera- 
tion even  in  the  youngest.  It  may  have  been 
true  at  one  time  (as  Canon  Henson  alleges) 
that  Nonconformists  neglected  that  period  in 
childhood  from  infancy  to  the  time  of  conver- 
sion, as  though  they  were  not  expected  to  do 
anything  for  their  children's  salvation  until  by 
the  grace  of  God  the  children  were  converted. 
The  Canon's  charge  is  not  true  of  present- 
day  Nonconformity.  The  numerous  Noncon- 
formist Sunday  Schools  disprove  it.  Most 
Nonconformists  would  accept  the  motto  :  "  All 
the  Church  in  the  School,  and  all  the  School  in 
the  Church."  This  points  to  the  need  of  a 
more  frank  recognition  of  the  child's  rights. 

All  will  agree  with  Dr  Horton's  strong 
plea  for  more  religious  training  in  the  home. 
Modern  life  offers  many  difficulties  on  this  score. 
Fathers  are  away  from  home  so  much  and  see 
so  little  of  their  children.  In  large  towns  and 
cities   home,  in  many  thousands  of  instances, 

is  for  the  father  but  a  place  for  bed  and  break- 

3 


34       The  Child  and  Religion 

fast.  Family  life  is  being  sacrificed  to  the 
exigencies  of  business  life.  In  tenements  and 
similar  places  called  homes,  thousands  are 
denied  the  privacy  of  a  true  home.  Who  is  to 
train  these  children  in  religion  ?  The  Sunday 
School  teacher?  We  are  very  thankful 
for  splendid  service  rendered  by  Sunday 
Schools.  But  that  is  not  enough.  Should 
not  the  Day  School  also  help  ?  The  best  heart 
of  Britain  says  :  "  The  Child  for  Religion,  and 
Religion  for  the  child."  Are  we  to  believe  that 
Canon  Henson's  readiness  to  accept  The  Free 
Church  Catechism  as  a  basis  of  an  unsectarian 
religious  education  in  Day  Schools  represents 
the  attitude  of  the  bulk  of  the  clergy  ?  If  that 
is  so,  the  solution  of  our  present  difficulty  is  not 
far  to  seek.  We  desire  to  have  for  the  child 
a  Christian  atmosphere  alike  in  the  home,  the 
school,  and  the  church.  A  "  secular  "  educa- 
tion from  which  all  religious  "  tone  "  is  excluded 
is  an  infliction  from  which  we  would  save  our 
children.  The  "  secular  "  is  true  only  as  it  is 
religious.     Surely  there  is  a  via  media  between 


Introduction  3  5 

the  extremes  of  the  controversy.  The  Canon's 
philosophical  explanation  of  the  teaching  of  the 
orthodox  Church  is  admirable,  but  it  is  different 
from  that  which  we  actually  meet  with  in  the 
parishes  of  England.  Hence  all  the  trouble. 
If  all  the  clergy  agreed  with  him,  the  course 
would  be  clear.  The  Nonconformists  are  more 
at  one  with  him  than  he  thinks.  The  "  un- 
denominationalism  "  he  condemns  is  certainly 
not  that  for  which  Nonconformists  contend. 
Again,  let  us  say  that  we  believe  we  have  in 
Canon  Henson's  essay  a  suggested  middle 
course  which  might  well  lead  to  a  reconcilia- 
tion of  earnest  men  on  both  sides  of  the 
dispute. 

Is  the  Catechetical  method  of  teaching 
religion  to  be  commended  ?  First  the  concrete, 
then  the  abstract,  that  is  the  modern  way  of 
general  education.  Should  the  theory  be 
applied  to  religious  education  ?  The  Estab- 
lished Church  and  some  Free  Churches  cling 
to  a  Catechism.  The  impatience  shown  to 
the  systematising  of  religious  facts  and  truths 


36       The  Child  and   Religion 

is  in  the  judgment  of  many  unwise.     The  ideal 

way  is  a  true  blending  of  the  inductive   and 

deductive  methods.     The  day  of  the  Catechism 

is  not  yet  over. 

It   remains,   in    a   closing   word,   to    thank 

the  writers  of  the  letters  from  which  I  have 

quoted,  and  Rev.  J.  G.  James,  M.A.,  Litt.  D. ; 

Rev.  E.  W.  Lewis,  M.A.,  B.D.  ;    and  Rev. 

W.    Oliver,    M.A.,    for    valuable    assistance 

willingly  rendered. 

THOMAS  STEPHENS. 


Camberwell  Green  Church, 
London,  S.E. 


THE  CHILD  AND  HEREDITY 

"A  MAN  is  what  he  is  at  any  period  of 
life,  first,  by  virtue  of  the  original  qualities 
which  he  has  received  from  his  ancestors,  and, 
secondly,  by  virtue  of  the  modifications  which 
have  been  eiFected  in  his  original  nature  by 
the  influence  of  education  and  of  the  con- 
ditions of  life.  But  what  a  complex  com- 
position of  causes  and  conditions  do  these 
simple  statements  import ! "  ^  The  task  of 
determining  what  it  is  precisely  which  is  in- 
herited in  any  particular  form  of  life,  and  how 
far  and  in  what  ways  the  original  inheritance 
may  be  enriched  or  impoverished,  continued 
in  its  first  tendency  or  diverted  therefrom, 
constitutes   the    main    enterprise   of    modern 

1  Dr  Maudsley's  Pathology  of  Mind,  p.  87. 
37 


38       The  Child  and   ReHgion 

biology.  And  it  has  proved  so  difficult  that, 
after  many  years  of  inquiry  and  discussion, 
biologists  have  hardly  succeeded  in  laying 
down  even  general  principles  which  they 
would  agree  in  regarding  as  open  to  no 
further  doubt. 

But  the  problem  of  the  nature  and  relative 
significance    of    inherited    qualities    and    the 
infiuence    of    surroundings,   with    which    the 
biologist   deals,    is  simple   as   compared  with 
that   which  is   raised  by  these   facts  for   the 
psychologist,  the  metaphysician,  and  the  moral 
philosopher.      For   these   latter   have  to  deal 
with  the  nature  and  the  interaction  of  these 
factors  within  the  realm  of  consciousness  ;  and 
consciousness,  however  we   may   account   for 
it,  is  a  fact  which  must  not  only  be  acknow- 
ledged, but  acknowledged  as  complicating  the 
issues,  and  indefinitely  deepening  their  import- 
ance.     We    may   derive   consciousness   from 
natural   conditions   after  the   manner   of  the 
Materialist,  or  we  may  attribute   to   it  some 
more   mysterious    origin ;    or    we   may   even 


The  Child  and  Heredity       39 

hesitate  to  seek  for  its  origin  at  all,  and  take 
it  as  a  given  and  unique  datum  :  in  all  cases 
alike  it  retains  its  own  character  and  its  own 
functions.  These  functions  are  what  they 
are,  whatever  their  history,  and  the  problem 
of  their  nature  remains  the  same,  however 
they  be  derived.  Is  consciousness  nothing 
but  a  mirror  in  which  man's  physical  activities 
are  reflected,  so  that  he  not  only  lives,  but 
carries  with  him  a  record  of  his  life  ?  Or  is 
it  something  more  than  a  passive  mirror,  and 
does  the  record  which  consciousness  keeps 
of  its  life  and  its  activities  change  that  life  and 
those  activities,  and  react  upon  its  inherited 
and  environing  constituents,  so  as  to  give 
them  a  new  meaning  and  efficacy,  and  a 
place  within  a  higher  order  of  being  which 
we  call  rational  or  spiritual? 

On  the  answer  that  is  given  to  these  ques- 
tions depends  the  whole  meaning  of  heredity 
and  of  circumstance  for  man  as  a  rational 
being.  And  upon  the  meaning  that  is  given 
to  heredity  and  circumstance  depends,  in  turn. 


40       The  Child  and  ReHgion 

the  very  possibility  of  his  having  a  rational 
life,  with  its  characteristic  cognitive,  moral, 
and  religious  activities. 

That  hereditary  conditions  and  the  influence 
of  environment  somehow,  and  to  some  degree, 
affect  human  character  no  one  will  deny. 
But  the  significance  of  the  admission  is  rarely 
seen.  As  a  rule,  the  question  is  reduced  into 
that  of  the  degree  or  extent  to  which  these 
natural  elements  enter  into  human  life.  For 
it  is  considered  that,  to  make  the  character 
depend  wholly  upon  these  tw^0  elements,  to 
regard  it  simply  as  the  product  of  these  two 
factors,  is  to  deprive  character  of  all  moral 
or  spiritual  meaning.  For  it  is  evident  that 
moral  character  must  be  made  by  each  indi- 
vidual for  himself;  that  it  must  be  the  ex- 
pression and  manifestation  of  the  self;  and 
that  the  self  disappears  if  it  be  analysed  into 
hereditary  and  environing  elements  in  their 
interaction. 

Consequently  we  find  the  apologist  of  man's 
spiritual   or   moral    nature   endeavouring,   by 


The  Child  and  Heredity       41 

means  of  various  devices,  to  retain  something 
for  man,  as  rational,  which  exists  over  and 
above  these  natural  factors.  He  has  a  will 
which  is  not  inherited  and  not  ruled  by  cir- 
cumstance, or  he  has  a  self  which  is  greater 
even  than  its  own  content.  "  The  Ego  is 
something  more  than  the  aggregate  of  feelings 
and  ideas,  actual  and  nascent."  These  and 
their  natural  antecedents  do  not  exhaust  the 
Ego  or  give  a  complete  account  of  all  its  actual 
and  possible  phenomena.  When  I  am  told, 
"  You  are  your  own  phenomena,"  I  reply : 
"  No  ;  I  have  my  own  phenomena,  and  so  far 
as  they  are  active  it  is  I  that  make  them,  and 
not  they  that  make  me."^  The  self  is  some- 
thing more  than  character  even.  There  is  in 
it  a  transcendental  element  which  character 
can  at  no  moment  wholly  express  or  embody. 
It  is  a  noumenon  amongst  phenomena,  and 
belongs  in  the  last  resort  to  another  order  of 
being  than  these  latter. 

But  the    problem   of    man's    rational   and 

1  See  Martineau's  Types  of  Ethical  Theory ,  II.  chap.  i. 


42       The  Child  and  ReHgion 

moral  life  cannot  be  solved  in  this  way,  nor 
the  meaning  of  heredity  and  environment  as 
applied  to  mankind  be  made  plain.  For  the 
question  is  not  a  question  of  the  degree  in 
which  the  natural,  inherited,  or  external 
elements  enter  into  his  life ;  but  of  the 
manner  in  which  they  enter.  It  matters 
nothing  where  we  draw  the  line  that  dis- 
tinguishes the  self  from  the  not-self,  or  the 
man  from  that  which  is  before  or  outside  of 
him:  we  may  draw  it  between  the  transcen- 
dental self  and  the  empirical  self;  between 
the  self  as  knowing  and  the  self  as  object  of 
knowledge ;  between  the  self  as  noumenon 
and  the  self  as  phenomenon ;  between  the 
self  and  the  character;  between  the  self  and 
the  feelings,  thoughts,  and  volitions  which  are 
the  content  of  character ;  or  between  the  self 
and  the  physical  conditions  which  antecede 
or  environ  it.  The  result  is  still  the  same. 
The  self  that  we  thus  isolate  is  empty  and 
impotent ;  and  the  man  as  a  whole,  whose 
nature   is,  after  all,  the  object  of  discussion. 


The  Child  and   Heredity      43 

is  represented  as  a  compound  of  extraneous 
and  mutually  repellent  elements  which  is  in 
theory  unintelligible,  and  in  practice  power- 
less for  either  good  or  evil.  The  natural  and 
the  spiritual  cannot  at  the  same  time  co- 
operate and  retain  their  mutually  exclusive 
characteristics. 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  the  problem  of 
heredity  assumes  in  the  realm  of  psychology 
and  ethics  a  different  character  from  that 
which  it  has  in  that  of  biology.  Biology 
could  at  best  give  only  the  natural  history  of 
man,  and  either  his  natural  history  is  not  his 
whole,  or  even  his  true  history,  or  else  his 
morality  and  religion  are  nothing  but  illusions. 
Either  he  is  not  the  result  of  the  action  of 
a  merely  'natural'  environment  upon  an  in- 
herited disposition,  and  the  process  of  merely 
natural  evolution  does  not  account  for  him 
in  his  real  inward  being  at  all,  or  else  his 
spontaneity  and  freedom  and  the  moral  life 
which  springs  therefrom  are  mere  appearances. 
Slowly  and  reluctantly,  but  inevitably,  it  seems 


44       The  Child  and   ReHgion 

to  me,  the  philosophers  of  the  present  time, 
and  especially  those  who  are  idealistic  in  temper 
and  who  therefore  will  not  easily  let  go  the 
spiritual  nature  of  man,  are  driven  to  choose 
between  the  naturalistic  or  materialistic  inter- 
pretation of  man  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
spiritual  interpretation  of  him  on  the  other. 
The  method  of  compromise,  that  is,  of  regard- 
ing man  as  partly  natural  and  partly  spiritual, 
as  from  one  point  of  view  a  noumenon,  and 
from  another  a  phenomenon,  as  a  mere  subject 
in  some  respects  and  a  mere  object  in  others, 
is  breaking  down.  It  is  gradually  realised 
that  both  the  natural  and  the  spiritual  method 
of  explaining  man  claim  him  as  a  whole. 
Either  his  inmost  self  must  fall  within  the 
natural  scheme,  or  else  that  natural  scheme 
itself  must  have  spiritual  significance.  Spirit  by 
its  very  nature  is  jealous  and  can  brook  no  rival. 
It  must  be  all,  if  it  is  at  all.  The  deepest  of 
all  differences  must  fall  within  its  unity  with 
itself.  Man  must  lapse  back  into  nature,  or  he 
must  raise  nature  to  his  own  level  as  spiritual. 


The  Child  and  Heredity       45 

But  the  choice  is  hard,  and  both  alterna- 
tives are  difficult.  It  is  hard  to  see  in  what 
way  nature  can  be  spiritualised  without 
evaporating  it  into  mere  forms  of  the  human 
consciousness ;  and  it  is  not  less  hard  for 
those  who  endeavour  to  look  at  the  facts 
of  human  life  as  a  whole  to  acquiesce  in  the 
reduction  of  morality  and  religion  into  natural 
things  disguised  as  spirit.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  ways  of  dualism  and  Agnosticism  are  easy. 
It  is  easy  to  make  the  realms  of  nature  and  of 
spirit  into  closed  and  exclusive  systems,  or  into 
different  orders  of  being,  so  that  natural  law 
terminates,  and  spiritual  law  begins  at  a 
certain  point.  And  it  is  easy  to  postulate 
some  unity  behind  nature  and  spirit,  and  to 
conceal  their  difference  by  making  them 
aspects  of  it,  or  to  bring  in  some  unknowable 
reconciliation  of  them  in  an  Absolute  which 
surpasses  knowledge.  It  is  easier  still  to 
seek  to  establish  man  in  an  unexpugnable 
ignorance  of  all  true  being ;  to  prove  that 
his   science   never  penetrates   behind   appear- 


W 


46       The  Child  and   Religion 

ances  to  the  real,  and  is  full  of  unveri- 
fied hypotheses,  which  can  be  riddled 
by  metaphysics ;  and  to  show  that  morality 
and  reUgion  have  even  less  rational  cogency, 
unless  we  are  permitted  to  base  them  upon, 
the  dogmatism  of  authority,  or  intuition,  or 
faith. 

All  these  methods  have  been  attempted 
by  the  different  philosophical  schools  of  the 
day.  But  none  of  them  has  proved  satis- 
factory or  brought  rest.  The  natural  pre- 
determination of  the  child,  whether  through 
heredity,  or  through  the  power  over  him  of 
external  circumstance,  remains  to  threaten 
his  spiritual  nature.  Nor  does  it  matter  on 
which  of  these  two  the  accent  is  thrown ; 
the  ideas  of  the  fixity  of  inherited  character 
in  the  child  and  of  its  being  plastic  to 
environment  are  both  alike  fatal  to  a  free 
and  rational  life.  The  possibility  of  moral 
character,  which  must  be  of  the  individual's 
own  acquisition,  is  destroyed  in  both  cases ; 
and  the  very  conception  of  individual  improve- 


The  Child  and  Heredity       47 

ment  and  social  reform  is  stultified.  Nor 
is  it  clear,  at  least  at  first  sight,  in  what  way 
the  operation  of  the  two  forces  together  can 
amount  to  anything  better  than  a  double 
enslavement ;  or  how  the  child  can  be 
regarded  otherwise  than  as  the  victim  both 
of  heredity  and  of  physical  and  social  environ- 
ment, as  of  two  colliding  necessities. 

And  yet  it  is  this  latter  condition  that 
seems  to  be  presented  to  us  as  a  fact.  That 
is  to  say,  the  child  seems  to  be  under  the 
dominion  of  both.  He  comes  into  the  world 
with  powers  inborn,  and  in  great  part  un- 
alterable. The  whole  force  of  circumstance 
can  only  assist  him  to  become  what,  in  a 
manner,  he  already  is.  His  intercourse  with 
the  world  "  alters  it  so  little  and  so  unessenti- 
ally, that  we  have  a  right  to  say  that  he 
remains  the  same."  And  yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  influence  of  the  environment  is 
so  great  as  to  count  for  well-nigh  all.  Apart 
from  it,  his  powers  remain  unrealised,  for 
the    environment    is    the   very    material    out 


48       The  Child  and   Religion 

of  which  his  character  is  fashioned.  It 
determines  which  of  his  powers  are  stimulated 
and  actuaHsed,  and  which  are  atrophied 
and  left  dormant ;  and,  apparently  also, 
whether  they  shall  be  directed  towards  vice 
or  virtue. 

Owing  to  this  double  aspect  of  human  life 
much  confusion  has  ensued  both  in  theory  and 
practice,  and  we  find  those  who  are  engaged 
either  in  the  education  of  the  child  or  in  social 
reform  involved  in  an  endless  and  apparently 
futile  discussion  as  to  the  relative  significance 
of  the  inner  and  outer  conditions  of  character. 
The  emphasis  is  laid  upon  heredity  and  en- 
vironment, or  shifted  from  the  one  to  the 
other,  according  to  the  purpose  or  need  of  the 
moment.  From  the  first  point  of  view  we 
find  it  maintained  that  a  child  may  inherit 
from  vicious  or  dissolute  parents  a  disposition 
to  evil.  It  matters  not,  we  are  told,  what 
influences  may  be  brought  to  bear  upon  it, 
sooner  or  later  the  original  strain  will  manifest 
itself  in  act.     The  vicious  life  breaks  out  in 


The  Child  and   Heredity       49 

due  time  almost  as  surely  as  oak  leaves  upon 
an  oak  tree.  And  so  strong  is  this  conviction, 
so  fully  does  it  seem  to  be  maintained  by 
evidence  gathered  from  all  quarters  of  the 
animal  kingdom,  that  it  has  been  a  main 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  one  of  the  most  desir- 
able and  promising  of  social  reforms.  I  refer 
to  the  adoption  as  members  of  the  family  of 
the  derelict  waifs  of  the  great  cities.  No  one 
can  deny  that  our  sporadic  and  intermittent 
benevolences  are  futile  for  the  purposes  of  the 
real  moral  education  of  such  children  ;  or  that 
the  too  remote  care  and  cool  affection  spent 
upon  the  children  in  poorhouses  and  other 
charitable  institutions  lack  the  regenerating 
force  of  a  virtuous  home.  Nor  do  I  believe 
it  possible  to  deny  that  in  this  country  and 
these  times,  where  the  sense  of  pity  and  of 
social  responsibility  is  so  much  quickened, 
adoption  might  not  be  more  general  than  at 
any  other  time  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
But    the    fear     of    hereditary    predisposition 

paralyses  the   benevolent,  and  paralyses  them 

4 


50       The  Child  and  Religion 

the  more,  the  more  they  place  value  upon 
character.  They  cannot  face  the  risk  of 
twining  their  affections  around  children  who 
may  have  brought  with  them  into  the  world 
the  tendencies  which  destroyed  their  parents. 

Nevertheless,  in  other  departments  of  per- 
sonal and  social  reform  the  accent  is  laid  upon 
the  environment,  as  if  heredity  signified  but 
little.  Nearly  all  the  more  important  public 
reforms  are  advocated  from  this  point  of  view. 
Let  but  the  institutions  of  society  be  changed, 
and  it  is  believed  all  else  will  follow  in  due 
course.  Moral  disease,  thinks  the  socialist, 
will  disappear  under  the  new  external  condi- 
tions over  which  he  dreams,  as  surely  (though 
perhaps  more  slowly)  as  physical  diseases  tend 
to  disappear  with  better  sanitation.  Nor  does 
this  view  lack  evidence  to  support  it.  There 
is  no  denying  the  significance  of  environment 
in  moral  matters,  any  more  than  in  physical. 

Not  only  are  the  influence  of  environment 
and  the  significance  of  heredity  alternately 
accentuated    and    minimised,   but   these   two 


The  Child  and   Heredity       51 

factors  of  character  are  held  to  be  opposed  to 
each  other.  For  it  seems  too  evident  to  admit 
of  dispute  that  the  more  the  child  brings  with 
it  into  the  world  through  the  hereditary 
transmission  of  its  parents'  qualities,  the  less 
can  external  environment  affect  it  for  evil  or 
good  ;  and,  vice  versa,  that  the  more  there  lies 
in  the  power  of  outward  circumstance  the  less 
the  significance  of  the  inherited  qualities. 
And  it  is  this  supposed  opposition  which  has 
led  to  the  persistent  and  apparently  hopeless 
effort  to  determine  the  limits  of  their  respective 
influences  upon  child  life.  What  practical 
reformer  would  not  prize  highly  the  discovery 
of  the  line  of  compromise  which  would  guide 
his  endeavour  and  show  what  he  may,  and  may 
not,  attempt  for  the  objects  of  his  care  ? 

On  this  account  those  who  inquire  into 
these  matters  with  the  dispassionate  continuity 
of  the  scientific  investigator  listen  with  keen 
interest  to  the  deliverances  of  biology  in  its 
comparatively  simpler  field.  It  is  felt,  in 
particular,  that  the  controversy  raised,  especi- 


52       The  Child  and   Religion 

ally  by  Weismann,  as  to  the  inheritance  by 
the  offspring  of  the  acquired  characteristics 
of  the  parent  is  of  profound  significance. 
That  controversy  is  still  so  far  from  being 
settled  that  we  are  not  entitled  to  regard 
any  conclusion  as  certain.  But  I  believe 
that  upon  the  whole  the  direction  in  which 
competent  opinion  strongly  tends  is  towards 
the  denial  of  the  inheritance  of  such  acquired 
characters.  It  is  very  doubtful  if  new  char- 
acters can  be  acquired  at  all.  Probably,  as 
Weismann  says,  "  Every  acquired  character 
is  simply  the  reaction  of  the  organism  upon  a 
certain  stimulus."  "  No  organ  can  be  origin- 
ated by  exercise,"  says  another  biologist, 
''  though  an  existing  organ  may  be  developed 
to  its  maximum."  .  .  .  And  even,  "granting 
that  there  are  such  things  as  acquired  char- 
acteristics, the  evidence  of  their  transmission 
is  unreliable."^ 

But    if    biological   evidence   tends   towards 
denying  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters, 

^  Headley's  Problems  of  Evolution,  p.  67. 


The  Child  and  Heredity       53 

it  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  it  also  tends  to 
minimise  the  significance  of  heredity.  On  the 
contrary,  those  who  are  the  most  strenuous 
in  denying  that  acquired  modifications  of 
the  parental  structure  can  be  transmitted  to 
the  offspring  make  the  largest  claims  for  the 
inheritance  of  other  characters.  Heredity, 
they  think,  can  be  explained  only  on  the 
theory  of  the  germ -plasm ;  and  the  theory 
of  the  germ-plasm  implies,  in  the  last  resort, 
not  only  that  life  is  continuous  but  that 
from  the  first  it  contains,  in  some  way,  the 
tendency  towards  the  variations  which  reveal 
themselves  in  the  successive  stages  of  animal 
life.  Outward  environment  only  elicits  or 
restrains,  stimulates  or  represses,  what  is 
already  present ;  but  it  can  add  nothing  that 
is  new. 

When  it  appears  to  cause  a  change  in  an 
organism,  closer  investigation  shows  that  it 
furnishes  only  the  occasion  by  reference  to 
which  the  living  thing  changes  itself.  "A 
green  frog,  if  he  is  not  among  green  leaves, 


54       The  Child  and   Religion 

but  amid  dull,  colourless  surroundings,  ceases 
to  be  bright  green,  and  becomes  a  sombre 
grey.  Put  him  among  foliage  again  and  his 
green  soon  returns.  It  cannot  be  said  that 
the  green  foliage  has  caused  his  colour  to 
change.  It  is  more  correct  to  say  that  he 
has  the  power  of  changing  his  colour  to 
suit  his  environment.  If  the  frog  happens 
to  be  blind,  no  change  of  colour  takes 
place ;  so  that  it  is  by  the  help  of  the  eye 
and  the  nervous  system  that  the  change  is 
effected."^  The  povrer  of  reaction  must  be 
present.  "  In  fact  an  external  condition  can 
do  nothing  but  bring  to  light  some  latent 
quality  "  ;  or,  as  Weismann  puts  it,  "  Nothing 
can  arise  in  an  organism  unless  the  pre- 
disposition to  it  is  pre-existent,  for  every 
acquired  character  is  simply  the  reaction  of 
the  organism  upon  a  certain  stimulus."  ^  Thus 
the  denial  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
qualities  and  the  assertion  of  the  inheritance 
of  all  other  characteristics  go  hand  in  hand. 

1  Headley's  Problems  of  Evolution,  p.  49.        ^  Ibid.,  p.  50. 


The  Child  and  Heredity      55 

They  are  both  consequences  of  the  view 
that  the  environment  can  only  furnish  the 
occasion,  i.e.  the  incentive  and  means  of 
organic  development. 

Now,  this  view  of  the  significance  of  here- 
dity and  of  the  subordinate,  though  necessary, 
role  of  the  environment  carries  with  it  most 
important  consequences  for  the  study  of  the 
child  and  the  conditions  of  his  development. 
The  first  of  these,  it  is  manifest,  is  that  if  we 
accept  this  theory  in  its  full  extent,  we  must 
conclude  that,  at  least  so  far  as  his  organic 
structure  is  concerned,  the  human  being  must 
be  regarded  as  in  some  manner  latently  or 
potentially  present  even  in  the  very  lowest 
form  of  animal  life.  Biologists  do  not  hesitate 
to  draw  this  conclusion.  "  In  the  lowest 
known  organism,  in  which  not  even  a  nucleus 
can  be  seen,  is  found  potentially  all  that  makes 
the  world  varied  and  beautiful."^  More 
strictly,  perhaps,  biologists  seek  to  find  it, 
proceed  on  the  hypothesis  that  it  is  there,  and 

1  Headley's  Problems  of  Evolution,  p.  39. 


56       The   Child  and   Religion 

are  engaged  in  discovering  the  conditions  and 
manner  of  its  presence. 

But  structure  and  function  go  together  and, 
so  far  as  the  general  observation  of  animal  life 
shows,  develop  paii  passu  at  all  its  stages.  And 
if  it  be  true  that  the  promise  of  the  human 
structure  is  latent  in  the  lowest  organism,  it 
would  seem  that  the  promise  of  its  functions  lies 
there  likewise.  No  doubt  we  must  distinguish 
between  the  psychical  and  the  physical.  How- 
ever they  are  related  they  cannot  be  identified. 
But  that  does  not  prevent  us  from  regarding 
both  as  developed  forms  of  the  lowest  life, 
the  one  on  the  side  of  its  functions  and  the 
other  on  the  side  of  their  physical  condition. 
Indeed  we  must  derive  both  or  neither,  unless 
we  are  prepared  to  destroy  all  intelligible 
correlation  between  what  an  organism  does 
and  what  it  is.  Hence  it  follows  that  the 
mental  powers  of  man  are  brought  within  the 
sweep  of  natural  evolution ;  and  the  child  is 
determined  at  birth — to  go  no  further — as 
a  rational  not  less  than  as  a  physical   being. 


The  Child  and  Heredity       57 

No  doubt,  as  in  other  cases,  the  environment, 
or,  as  we  may  say  in  this  context,  eooperience 
may  furnish  the  means  of  modifying  the  in- 
herited powers,  but  it  cannot  initiate.  The 
child  can  become  only  what  it  was  potentially 
at  the  first. 

Now,  at  first  sight,  this  hypothesis  seems 
fatal  to  the  possibilities  of  ethics  and  religion 
and  all  the  higher  interests  of  man ;  and 
to  limit  greatly  the  range  within  which  the 
child  can  be  educated.  It  is  not  without 
reason  that,  as  we  have  seen,  the  apologists 
of  man's  spiritual  life  have  recoiled  from 
this  doctrine,  and  have  sought  to  endow 
man  with  some  power  or  other  which  stood 
free  from  this  chain  of  necessary  causation, 
or  endeavoured  to  discredit  the  deliver- 
ances of  natural  science  as  hypothetical  and 
sought  refuge  in  faith,  based  upon  ignorance. 
But  the  first  of  these  methods  is  certainly 
doomed  to  fail.  Its  very  success  brings 
failure.  For  precisely  in  the  degree  to  which 
the  self-conscious  ego  is  withdrawn  from  real 


58       The  Child  and   ReHgion 

connection  with  the  world,  in  which  it  is  placed 
in  order  to  realise  itself,  does  that  realisation 
become  unintelligible.  We  cannot  afford  to 
deny  or  mystify  man's  intercourse  with  the 
world,  by  interaction  with  which  his  powers  are 
evolved  ;  and  intercourse  is  impossible  if  there 
is  no  real  or  ontological  relation  between  these 
factors.  And  as  to  the  second  method,  even 
while  admitting  that  this  doctrine  of  evolution 
is  only  a  hypothesis,  and  that  even  the  surest 
deliverances  of  natural  science  are  only  in 
process  of  being  proved,  I  should  consider  the 
tenure  of  our  moral  and  religious  beliefs  very 
insecure  if  they  could  be  held  only  on  the  con- 
dition of  discrediting  natural  science. 

Rather  than  avail  ourselves  of  either  of  these 
methods,  let  us  seek  to  discover  what  con- 
sequences really  do  follow  if  we  accept  this 
doctrine  of  evolution  and  heredity  as  true. 
T  believe  it  possible  that  in  this  doctrine, 
rightly  understood,  there  may  be  found  the 
best  defence  of  man's  spiritual  interests.  The 
importance  of  the  issue  justifies  close  inquiry. 


The  Child  and  Heredity       59 

In  the  first  place,  then,  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  the  result  of  this  view  is  not 
to  naturalise  man,  but  to  rationalise  his 
antecedents. 

For  this  doctrine  does  not  assimilate  man 
to  his  animal  progenitors,  but  his  animal  pro- 
genitors to  man.  It  does  not  strip  man  of  his 
powers,  but  endows  the  lower  animal  creation 
with  the  promise  of  them,  asserting  that  they 
exist  from  the  first  potentially.  Evolution  thus 
comes  to  mean  what  idealistic  philosophers 
have  maintained  that  it  is,  namely,  a  process 
of  levelling  upwards,  and  not  of  levelling 
downwards.  Man  is  not  made  the  poorer  by 
the  enrichment  of  his  animal  ancestors.  His 
conscious  life  retains  its  characters  even 
although  it  should  be  proved  that  the  crude 
promise  of  it  lies  in  simple  organisms.  Hence 
those  who  believe  that  man's  nature  is  essen- 
tially rational  or  spiritual  can  abide  this 
biological  issue  not  only  without  concern  but 
with  the  assurance  that  if  it  be  true  it  makes 
the  world  mean  more   and  not  less,  brings  it 


6o       The  Child  and   Religion 

closer  to  man  and  even  makes  it  share,  in  its 
way,  in  his  rational  enterprise. 

Within  the  sphere  of  human  psychology 
this  conception  of  the  higher  as  impUcit  in 
the  lower  favours  man's  ethical  and  spiritual 
interests  still  more  clearly.  Psychologists 
have  been  divided  in  opinion  on  this  question 
of  evolution  and  heredity  in  a  way  closely 
analogous  to  the  biologists.  And  amongst 
them  also  the  tendency,  on  the  whole,  has 
been  towards  assimilating  the  lower  to  the 
higher,  or  towards  levelling  upwards.  But 
nothing  beyond  a  "  tendency  "  in  this  direction 
can  be  asserted  thus  far.  For  there  are  many 
philosophers  who,  in  their  metaphysical  specu- 
lations, at  least,  proceed  on  the  older  hypoth- 
esis. By  implication,  if  not  by  direct  assertion, 
they  treat  sensation,  perception,  conception, 
and  the  higher  powers  of  reason  as  if  they 
appeared  successively ;  and  the  child  during 
his  development  is  made  to  pass  from  a  per- 
ceptual and  individual  form  of  experience  into 
a  conceptual  or  universal  form,  which  latter  is 


The  Child  and  Heredity       6i 

alone  rational  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term. 
And  most  important  issues  follow  from  this 
view.  Amongst  them  are  the  limitation  of  the 
operations  of  the  higher  faculties  to  the  formal 
re-arrangement  of  the  data  of  sense ;  and  the 
condemnation  of  science  and  philosophy  to 
the  task  of  restating,  in  a  more  abstract  and 
general  form,  the  truths  already  obtained  in 
perception.  The  progress  of  knowledge,  on 
this  view,  is  the  self-stultifying  movement  from 
the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  from  particulars 
rich  in  content  to  universals  that  are  formal 
and  empty.  And,  above  all,  the  higher  is 
made  dependent  upon  the  lower,  and  man's 
activities,  in  the  last  resort,  are  represented  as 
sensuously  determined.  Many  therefore  and 
various  are  the  devices  to  which  recourse  has 
to  be  made,  in  order  to  save  man's  rational 
interests  threatened  by  this  hypothesis.  As 
man's  life  rests  upon  perceptions  and  percep- 
tions upon  impressions,  impressions  and  per- 
ceptions of  another  kind  than  those  which  lead 
to  cognition    are   postulated  on  behalf  of  his 


62       The  Child  and  Religion 

higher  interests.  Art,  moraUty,  and  religion 
are  said  to  have  their  own  special  and  peculiar 
sensible  data,  and  the  conceptions  proper  to 
them  are  derived  from  these  data  by  generali- 
sation and  attenuation.  There  are  unique 
aesthetic  perceptions  for  the  consciousness  of 
beauty,  unique  moral  perceptions  for  the 
consciousness  of  goodness,  and  unique  super- 
sensible impressions  to  furnish  the  data  for 
religion.  It  is  not  observed  that  this  method 
re-introduces  the  discredited  doctrine  of 
separate  faculties,  and  loses  "  man "  in  his 
parts  and  divisions ;  far  less  is  it  observed 
that  beauty,  truth,  and  goodness  imply 
each  other  and  cannot  thus  be  held  apart. 

But  the  more  consistent  idealist  postulates 
the  presence  of  the  higher  faculties  in  the 
lower.  He  finds  sense  to  be  implicit  reason, 
and  ordinary  knowledge  to  be  implicit  science. 
The  progress  of  knowledge  is  for  him  a  process 
of  concretion  and  not  of  abstraction,  of  articu- 
lation and  not  of  mere  generalisation.  The 
higher  contains  the  truth  of  the  lower  in  a 


The  Child  and  Heredity       63 

fuller  form ;  sense  is  carried  up  into  percep- 
tion, and  perception  into  thought.  And  hence 
the  higher  is  not  determined  by  the  lower,  but 
is  the  fulfilment  of  its  own  promise  within  it ; 
and  the  nisus  of  the  whole  process  is  within 
itself. 

So  far,  then,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
conception  of  evolution,  both  in  its  biological 
and  in  its  psychical  applications,  contains  no 
threat  against  the  higher  life  of  man.  It  lifts 
him  above  external  necessitation  by  placing 
the  impulse  and  direction  of  his  evolution 
within  himself.  He  is  not  product  but  pro- 
ducer, not  consequence  but  cause.  He  him- 
self is  present,  although  only  implicitly,  in  his 
antecedents  ;  and  while  external  conditions 
stimulate,  he  is  determined  to  action  only 
by  himself. 

But,  it  will  be  asked,  does  not  the  necessita- 
tion remain  ?  According  to  this  view,  are  not 
the  future  of  the  child,  and  his  character  as 
man,  determined  for  him  ?  Is  not  hereditary 
determination  fatal    determination?      What 


64       The  Child  and   Religion 

can  education,  or  aught  else  that  the  physical 
and  social  environment  can  bring,  do  for  him, 
except  simply  make  him  what  he  already  is  ? 
Have  we  not  denied  not  only  the  transmission 
of  acquired  characters,  but  the  possibility  of 
acquiring  anjrthing  that  is  really  new  ? 

I  reply  that  no  answer  except  a  fatalistic 
one  is  possible  to  these  questions  if  we  start 
from  the  ordinary  presupposition,  to  which  I 
have  already  alluded,  namely,  that  the  more 
we  attribute  to  heredity  the  less  we  can  attri- 
bute to  the  environment ;  or  that  in  taking 
the  child  from  the  power  of  the  one  we  place 
him  under  the  power  of  the  other.  If  heredity 
and  environment  are  thus  taken  as  opposed,  or 
as  acting  singly,  the  possibility  of  that  identity 
in  change  which  the  progressive  attainment  of 
rational  character  implies  disappears.  For  the 
first  means  mere  fixity,  and  the  second  mere 
change.  The  first  denies  the  improvement  of 
the  self ;  the  second  dissipates  the  self. 

But  T  should  like  to  question  this  assumption 
of  the  opposition  of  heredity  and  environment, 


The  Child  and  Heredity       65 

or  of  their  alternate  sway  over  human  Ufe. 
The  fact  is  that  Hfe  in  all  its  activities  implies 
their  interaction.  The  child  is  never  under 
the  dominion  of  one  of  them  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  other,  for  they  signify  nothing  so  long 
as  they  are  held  apart.  Except  for  the 
environment  his  powers  would  remain  poten- 
tial only,  and  mere  potentiality,  whatever  it 
means,  is  not  actuality ;  and  similarly,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  mere  environment  has  no 
significance,  and  its  influence  is  not  real  where 
there  are  no  powers  that  can  utilise  it.  The 
entire  meaning  and  power  of  both  lies  in  their 
relation.  They  are  what  they  are  through 
mutual  implication. 

And,  further,  seeing  that  they  enter  as 
factors  into  organic  life,  the  increase  of  the 
one  does  not  imply  the  diminution  of  the 
other.  On  the  contrary,  the  larger  the  in- 
herited faculty,  the  greater  the  opportunities 
which  any  given  environment  brings.  Where 
the  inherited  endowment  is  meagre,  the  en- 
vironment can  do  little  either  to  develop  or  to 


66       The  Child  and  Religion 

repress.  And,  relatively  to  his  animal  pro- 
genitors, it  is  because  the  hereditary  powers 
of  the  child  are  so  great  that  the  nature  of 
his  environment  is  so  important.  You  can 
swing  a  canary's  cage  in  the  most  immoral 
surroundings  without  detriment  to  the  bird ; 
but  to  place  the  child  there  is  to  come  nigh  to 
making  a  calamitous  result  inevitable. 

It  is  not  to  be  considered,  however,  that  the 
environment  can  be  regarded  as  causing  the 
character.  Mere  environment  can  obviously 
cause  nothing  ;  at  the  very  most  it  is  only 
one  element  or  factor  in  the  cause.  Nay,  if 
we  keep  close  to  the  view  of  evolution  which 
we  have  been  discussing,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  word  "  cause "  is  not  appropriate  in  this 
context,  and  that  the  influence  exerted  by  the 
environment  is  not  "  causal "  in  its  character. 
For  it  does  not  determine  the  development  of 
the  child ;  it  only  furnishes  the  means  for  its 
5^//^-determination.  It  can  initiate  no  powers, 
and  possibly  it  can  ultimately  destroy  none ; 
for   the   germ-plasm   theory  provides   for  the 


The  Child  and  Heredity       67 

indestructibility  of  life  and  its  potencies  as 
well  as  for  its  continuity.  What  it  can  do, 
and  does,  is  to  provide  the  conditions  under 
which  particular  powers  of  the  individual  may 
or  may  not  be  developed.  And  in  this  respect 
the  importance  of  the  part  it  plays  cannot  well 
be  exaggerated.  It  is,  I  believe,  as  vain  to 
expect  the  normal  or  right  development  of  a 
child's  rational  nature  in  an  unfavourable  en- 
vironment, as  it  is  to  expect  the  healthy  growth 
of  the  body  under  unhealthy  conditions.  The 
dependence  of  the  child's  welfare  upon  the 
external  factor  of  his  well-being  is  complete, 
even  although  its  dependence  on  the  inner 
factor  also  is  complete.  Both  are  absolutely 
necessary  conditions  of  his  well-being,  and 
they  must  be  concurrent. 

But  it  does  not  follow  that  they  are  of  the 
same  rank,  or  that  we  can  regard  them  both 
equally  as  causes,  or  as  exercising  the  same 
parts  in  the  determination  of  the  child's 
character.  Both  means  and  end  are  necessary 
to  bring  about  a  result,  and  nevertheless  the 


68       The  Child  and   Religion 

means  is  subordinate  to,  as  well  as  necessary 
for  the  realisation  of  the  end.  And  such,  on 
this  view  of  evolution,  is  the  relation  between 
the  inner  and  outer  conditions  of  character. 
All  that  the  environment  can  do,  in  the  last 
resort,  is  to  call  the  child's  powers  into 
activity,  and  furnish  the  means  of  their  realisa- 
tion. The  direction  and  the  final  limits  of 
his  development  are  prescribed  from  within. 

We  must  now  endeavour  to  ascertain  some 
of  the  results  which  flow  from  this  conception 
of  the  relation  of  inborn  character  and  environ- 
ment. The  first  of  these  is  that  a  fresh 
light  is  thrown  upon  the  nature  of  the 
dependence  of  the  child  upon  his  surround- 
ings. According  to  the  view  both  of  the 
determinists  and  the  indeterminists,  any  kind 
of  real  or  ontological  connection  between 
the  child  and  the  natural  system  into  which 
he  is  born  was  regarded  as  an  obstacle  to 
his  freedom,  and  therefore  to  his  realisation 
of  a  life  which  can  be  called  moral  or 
spiritual.      Hence   the    controversy    between 


The  Child  and  Heredity       69 

them  turned  upon  the  possibility  of  Uberating 
him  frovi    this    system.     According    to    the 
doctrine   we    have    endeavoured    to    explain, 
the  outer  world,  so  far  from  being  an  obstacle 
to  his  self-realisation,  is  the  indispensable  con- 
dition of  it.     The  social  and  physical  environ- 
ment   furnishes    the    whole    content    of    his 
rational   life.      Hence    the    richer   the   world 
is    in    which     he     finds     himself,    the    more 
constant    its    pressure    upon    him,    and    the 
more   varied  and   more  active  its   incitations, 
the  more  surely  he  attains  what  it  is  in  him 
to   be.     The   world  is   there   in   order  to   be 
possessed  by   his   intelligent   nature;  and   his 
intelligence  grows  just  in  the  degree  to  which 
he  enters  upon   this   possession.     It   is   there 
to  call   forth   the   active   powers  of  his   will, 
and  his  will  grows  in  range  and  effectiveness 
with  its  reaction  upon  the  world.     He  is  set 
to  realise  his  rational  nature,  not  in  spite  of, 
but  by  means  of  his  surroundings.     And  his 
dependence  upon  them,  though   as   complete 
as  the  dependence  of  his  body  upon  air   and 


70       The  Child  and   Religion 

light  and  food  and  drink,  is  a  dependence 
which  ends  in  converting  them  into  his  own 
substance,  and  making  them  into  constitutive 
elements  of  his  power  to  think  and  act.  It 
is  isolation,  and  not  connection,  that  implies 
impotence.  It  is  the  aloofness  of  a  world  whose 
meaning  is  not  comprehended  which  brings 
bondage  and  compulsion.  In  the  degree  to 
which  the  self  is  free  it  possesses  the  world. 
It  internalises  it  within  the  self;  the  self 
ideally  comprises  it  and  makes  it  the  instru- 
ment of  its  will.  In  fact,  this  is  the 
process  by  which  the  child  develops  towards 
the  fulness  of  his  stature.  That  is  to  say, 
his  education  is  the  opening  out  of  his  powers 
of  converting  that  which  originally  was 
external  to  him  into  constituent  elements 
of  his  self  When  he  has  reached  the  stage 
at  which  his  development  ceases,  one  can 
say  with  much  truth  that  all  his  environment 
is  within  him.  To  the  degree  in  which  the 
character  has  become  fixed,  whether  in  the  ways 
of  vice  or   of  virtue,  to   that   degree  all  the 


The  Child  and  Heredity       71 

new  forces  which  play  upon  him  either  leave 
him  unaffected  or  simply  re-inforce  his  existing 
tendencies.  This  is  the  reason  why  so  little 
can  be  done  to  assist  the  adult  wastrels ;  and 
why  the  very  means  of  well-doing  are  turned 
by  them  into  instruments  of  deeper  corruption. 
Such  is  the  power  of  character,  once  formed, 
over  that  which  plays  upon  it,  that,  whether 
it  be  good  or  evil,  it  turns  it  into  its  own 
substance.  And  social  reformers,  as  their 
experience  grows,  tend  more  and  more  to 
despair  of  doing  anything  real  for  the  man, 
and  to  turn  their  forces  of  improvement  more 
and  more  upon  the  child. 

It  follows  in  the  next  place  that  what  a 
child  inherits  are  not  actual  tendencies  but 
"^oltnti^l  faculties.  Biologists  sometimes  speak 
as  if  it  were  possible  for  parents  to  transmit 
tendencies  or  propensities  towards  good  or  evil 
to  their  offspring ;  and  we  have  already  seen 
something  of  the  way  in  which  this  concep- 
tion has  entered  into  the  common  belief  and 
practice  of  our  times.    It  arises  from  the  direct 


72       The  Child  and  Religion 

application  of  natural  categories  to  moral  facts. 
Goodness  is  considered  as  a  "variation,"  and 
as  capable  of  transmission  through  inheritance, 
as  if  it  were  an  organic  structure.  It  is  sup- 
posed to  develop  from  age  to  age  in  a  race, — 
"the  race  which  has  much  of  it  having  an 
advantage  over  that  which  has  little."  In 
short,  it  is  made  subject  to  ordinary  evolution. 
Hence,  in  accordance  with  the  germ-plasm 
theory,  goodness  should  be  present  potentially 
in  the  lowest  organism.  "  If  goodness  appeared 
in  the  world  only  in  evolution's  latest  stage, 
we  may  nevertheless  infer  its  existence  before 
life  began  upon  the  earth.  The  Darwinian 
believes  that  no  new  power  or  faculty  has  been 
introduced  from  without,  since  the  simplest 
form  of  life  began  the  course  of  evolution  that 
was  to  end  in  the  most  complex  and  highest. 
It  is  evident,  then,  that  on  this  hypothesis, 
goodness  existed  potentially  from  the  begin- 
ning, only  waiting  for  the  required  circum- 
stances to  develop  it."^ 

1  Headley's  Problems  of  Evolution^  p.  291. 


The  Child  and  Heredity       73 

In  accordance  with  this  view  one  would 
expect  that  what  appUes  to  goodness  also 
applies  to  evil ;  and  that  it,  too,  is  present  in 
the  lowest  organism,  persists  and  is  developed 
from  age  to  age.  But  apparently  it  is  not  so. 
The  process  of  evolution  is  said  to  be  one  by 
which  evil  is  being  perpetually  eliminated 
or  subjugated,  and  evil  cannot,  therefore,  be 
regarded  as  a  primary  principle.^ 

I  shall  not  inquire  whether  the  biologist  is 
entitled  thus  to  mete  out  a  different  measure 
to  good  and  evil ;  for  1  cannot  admit  the 
transmission  by  inheritance  of  either  of  them. 
They  are  in  their  very  nature  incapable  of  it. 
For  they  are  neither  structures  nor  functions  ; 
neither  organs  nor  faculties  ;  and  it  is  only 
with  these  that  biological  evolution  deals. 
They  are  modes,  qualities,  or  "  values "  of 
functions,  and  have  no  independent  existence 
and  cannot  persist.  They  are  only  so  long  as 
they  are  being  willed,  or  only  so  long  as  the 
will  is  active.     We  call  a  man  good  because 

^  See  Problems  of  Evolution,  p.  2^^, 


74       The  Child  and   Religion 

we  believe  that  his  formed  character  will  lead 
him  from  time  to  time  to  do  good  acts.  The 
amount — if  we  could  really  speak  of  "  amount " 
— of  good  and  evil  in  the  world  at  any  moment 
is  measured  by  the  actual  volition  of  what 
is  right  and  wrong.  Good  and  evil  exist, 
whether  in  the  individual  or  in  the  race,  by 
constant  re-creation,  and  they  perish  utterly 
with  the  acts  which  they  characterise.  Hered- 
ity, therefore,  cannot  touch  them.  Every 
man,  as  moral,  is  a  new  being.  His  history 
begins  and  ends  with  his  will. 

What  does  persist  and  might  conceivably 
be  transmitted  is  the  modification  set  up  in 
the  individual's  powers  through  the  doing  of 
right  or  wrong  actions.  For  every  action, 
mental  or  physical,  recoils  upon  the  faculty 
which  has  produced  it.  And  it  is  possible 
thus  that  there  may  be  an  accumulation,  not 
indeed  of  good  or  evil,  but  of  propensities  to 
perform  the  one  or  the  other.  And  there  is 
no  doubt  that  this  accumulation  takes  place 
within  the  life  of  the  individual.     The  creation 


The  Child  and  Heredity       75 

of  "  habit,"  which  is  one  of  the  conditions  of 
the  acquirement  of  increased  power  of  any  kind, 
would  be  uninteUigible,  if  the  doing  of  acts 
left  no  trace  upon  the  doer.  But,  if  it  be  true 
that  acquired  characters  are  not  transmitted, 
then  even  tendencies  to  good  or  evil  cannot 
come  by  inheritance.  No  child  is  born  vicious 
or  virtuous.  It  is  only  by  his  own  action  that 
he  can  become  the  one  or  the  other.  He  is 
not  even  pre-disposed  to  virtue  or  vice,  unless, 
indeed,  we  identify  the  former  with  the  innate 
impulse  towards  self-realisation,  characteristic 
of  all  life.  Not  even  the  most  unfortunate  of 
human  beings  is  born  with  a  moral  taint. 
What  he  inherits  are  powers,  and  these  un- 
deniably may  vary  both  in  a  relative  and  in 
an  absolute  sense  ;  so  that  the  appeal  of  the 
environment  may  mean  very  different  things 
to  different  children,  and  the  education  of  the 
child  into  a  virtuous  manhood  may  be  much 
more  difficult  in  one  case  than  in  another. 
But  that  such  education  is  more  or  less 
possible  in  the  case  of  every  rational  being  I 


76       The  Child  and   ReHgion 

must  believe.  The  possession  of  a  rational 
life  implies  it,  or,  rather,  I  should  say  that  the 
possibility  or  potency  of  such  a  life  implies  it ; 
for  the  possibility  is  turned  into  actuality,  and 
the  powers  are  realised  only  in  their  interaction 
with  the  environment. 

The  conclusion  to  which  we  are  thus  led, 
by  our  consideration  of  heredity  in  its  relation 
to  the  child,  is  that  character  cannot  be  trans- 
mitted. The  vital  energy  which  passes  from 
parent  to  child  is  variable  in  absolute  quantity 
and  in  the  relative  strength  of  its  constituents. 
And  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  reasonable 
room  for  doubt  that  a  degenerate  parentage 
brings  weakened  offspring ;  or  that,  in  this 
restricted  and  metaphorical  sense,  the  sins  of 
the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children.  But 
in  every  other  sense,  except  this  of  varying 
capacities  awaiting  realisation  by  actual  con- 
tact with  circumstance,  each  child  is  a  new 
beginning ;  the  way  to  virtue  is  as  open 
to  the  child  of  the  wicked  as  it  is  to  the 
child    of    the    virtuous.      The    whole    stress, 


The  Child  and  Heredity       77 

therefore,  falls  upon  the  environment,  and 
above  all  else  upon  the  social  environment, 
into  which  from  birth  the  child  enters.  And 
the  essential  element  in  that  environment 
is  not  the  precept  but  the  practice  of  those 
into  whose  hands  the  care  of  the  child  falls. 
For  not  only  does  the  child  measure  the 
significance  of  the  precept  by  reference  to 
the  practical  life,  but  it  is  this  life  which 
constitutes  the  constant,  normal  environ- 
ment, the  very  air  it  draws  in  with  every 
breath. 

The  question  of  surrounding  the  child  with 
influences  calculated  to  evolve  its  powers  is 
thus  of  transcendent  importance.  From  birth 
to  death  he  acquires  nothing  except  from  his 
surroundings.  Apart  from  the  community, 
from  his  community,  from  the  atmosphere  of 
example  and  general  custom  which  he  appre- 
hends and  assimilates,  he  is  but  a  blank  possi- 
bility and  an  abstraction.  His  very  self  is 
social  in  its  whole  make  and  structure.  His 
character,  if  it  is  necessarily  all   of  his   own 


78       The  Child  and  Religion 

making  and  the  expression  of  his  own  inner 
rational  life,  is  nevertheless  wrought  out  of  the 
active  substance  of  the  social  habitudes  that  sur- 
round him  ;  "its  content  implies  in  every  fibre 
relations  of  community."  The  tongue  he 
speaks  is  not  more  surely  the  language  of  his 
own  people  than  are  the  ideas  he  forms,  the 
sentiments  he  imbibes,  and  the  habits  he  makes. 
Hence  it  follows  that  the  best,  nay,  the  only 
good  education  of  the  child,  comes,  as  Pytha- 
goras said,  "by  making  him  the  citizen  of  a 
people  with  good  institutions."  What  the 
limits  of  the  inborn  potentialities  of  a  child  may 
be  no  one  can  determine.  There  is  a  sense  in 
which  it  is  not  possible  to  think  too  highly  of 
his  heritage.  For  is  not  reason  in  its  very 
nature  the  counterpart  of  the  realm  of  reality  ? 
And  is  not  the  world  of  things  and  men,  the 
marvellous  outer  cosmos  and  the  still  more 
marvellous  order  of  social  life  in  all  their  in- 
exhaustible variety  of  contact;  there  for  him  to 
assimilate  and  possess  ?  But  this  inheritance, 
ideally  so  great,  is  in  actual  practice  limited 


The  Child  and  Heredity       79 

to  the  forces  that  immediately  play  around 
him.  And,  within  the  limited  scope  of  his 
life  on  earth  he  cannot  excel,  except  to  a  most 
exiguous  degree,  the  actual  life  in  which  his 
lot  is  cast.  He  can  rise  but  a  little  above 
his  surroundings.  The  educative  power  of  a 
community  towards  its  own  children  is  thus 
measured  by  the  amount  of  virtue  and  wisdom 
which  it  shows  in  its  own  customary  conduct. 
It  cannot  improve  them  except  by  improving 
itself;  and  the  building  up  of  the  moral 
cosmos  is  a  slow  process.  But  that  a  com- 
munity should  spend  its  care  upon  bringing 
what  is  best  within  it  to  bear  upon  the  open- 
ing powers  of  its  children,  even  taking  upon 
itself  the  responsibilities  and  privileges  of 
parentage  when  the  natural  parent  by  his  own 
vice  and  folly  has  abdicated  them ;  that  it 
should  venture  far  more  for  the  sake  of  the 
young,  risking  much  in  order  to  educate  them 
into  virtue,  is  the  surest  of  all  conditions  of  its 
welfare.  Compared  with  this  every  other  task 
that  reformers   and  legislators  can  undertake 


8o       The  Child  and  ReUgion 

sinks  into  insignificance :  so  rich  is  the  innate 
inheritance  of  the  child,  and  so  dependent  is 
his  possession  of  it  upon  those  into  whose  hands 
his  Ufe  falls. 

HENRY  JONES. 
The  University  of  Glasgow. 


II 

THE   CHILD  AND   ITS   ENVIRONMENT 

In  one  of  the  best  known  of  Whitman's  poems 
the  writer  has  described  the  development  of 
the  universe  in  the  mind  of  the  child  as  the 
world  of  outward  impressions  stamped  upon 
its  developing  consciousness,  not  only  a  store 
of  memories,  but  the  very  form  and  structure 
which  that  consciousness  should  assume.  As 
the  "  child  went  forth  "  from  day  to  day,  the 
wind  and  the  sun,  the  procession  of  the  cattle 
with  their  tinkling  bells,  the  music  and  salt 
scents  of  the  sea  became,  not  only  memories 
of  the  child,  but  "part  of  the  child."  So  that 
when  full  consciousness  has  been  attained  a 
universe  had  been  constructed  in  which  hence- 
forth that  child  will  reside  ;  in  that  mysterious 

inner  world,  apart  and  solitary,  in  which  each 

81  6 


82       The  Child  and  Religion 

one  of  us  resides   in  our  procession  through 
time,  and  the  pageant  of  passing  things. 

This  is  the  real  secret  of  the  mystery  of 
environment.  The  old  conception  of  the 
eighteenth  -  century  psychology,  which  re- 
garded the  mind  as  a  piece  of  blank  paper, 
upon  which  would  be  stamped  the  influence 
of  surroundings,  just  as  the  printing  press 
stamps  varied  pictures,  some  for  honour, 
some  for  dishonour,  has  vanished  before 
a  larger  revelation  of  the  store  of  past 
inheritance  and  experience  which  each  fragile 
child  mind  carries  with  it  into  the  world. 
From  the  beginning  it  is  scarred  with  ancestral 
sins  or  strengthened  with  the  capital  piled 
up  by  the  effort  of  many  generations.  And 
although  in  the  reaction  from  the  extreme 
emphasis  upon  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
characters,  in  which  the  thought  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  swung  as  far  wrong  in  one 
direction  as  that  of  the  eighteenth  century  in 
another,  many  are  inclined  to  doubt  the  whole 
philosophy  built  upon  this  conception,  at  least 


The  Child  and  Environment     83 

no  one  would  venture  to  return  to  the  theory 
of  the  Tabula  Rasa.  With  the  abandonment 
of  that  theory  has  gone  the  abandonment  of 
the  dreams  based  upon  it.  The  child  of  the 
sweep  might  become  kingly  if  reared  in  the 
palace ;  but  no  one  imagines  that  by  the 
sudden  destruction  of  all  the  old,  unquiet  past, 
and  the  re-establishment  in  another  year  1  of 
an  age  of  gold,  it  would  become  possible  to 
sweep  away  also  all  that  past's  inheritance  in 
the  children  which  were  born  of  this  time  of 
innocence.  It  is  as  selecting  and  modifying 
impulses  already  implanted  in  some  mysterious 
fashion  in  that  developing  child  mind  that  the 
effect  of  environment  is  now  seen  mainly  to 
operate.  Environment  has  become  "part  of 
the  child."  Through  the  machine,  as  it  were, 
formed  by  the  influences  of  that  environment, 
that  child  will  henceforth  interpret  all  future 
experience.  In  a  rough,  rather  imperfect 
analogy,  one  may  conceive  of  the  child 
placing  upon  itself  layers  of  outside  protec- 
tion built  from  the  surrounding  medium,  just 


84       The  Child  and   ReUgion 

as  the  mollusc  builds  round  itself  coloured 
or  grey  shell  out  of  the  medium  which  is  its 
home.  But  the  analogy  is,  in  fact,  more 
profound.  The  child  is  not  merely  developing 
a  shell  intervening  between  itself  and  the 
world  of  reality  outside ;  it  is  building  from 
that  world  the  actual  fibre  of  its  own  being. 
When  the  process  is  complete  no  future 
impulse  of  sensation  can  rebuild  or  destroy 
this  structure  of  the  inner  mind. 

It  is  therefore  of  primary  importance  to 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  environment 
which  at  the  present  is  playing  this  persistent 
part  of  moulding  and  developing  the  mind  of 
the  new  generation.  It  is  the  more  important 
because  in  the  main  that  environment  has 
profoundly  changed  during  half  a  century, 
and  the  change  is  still  largely  unrecognised  by 
those  who  live  to  a  large  extent  detached  and 
independent  from  the  populations  which  have 
passed  from  the  one  condition  to  the  other. 
Educational  systems,  children's  books,  religious 
ideas,  are  still  compiled  in  terms  of  the  one 


The  Child  and   Environment     85 

rather  than  of  the  other.  Perhaps  the  failure 
of  so  many  of  these — for  failure  is  written 
large  to-day  over  all  their  enterprise — is  due 
to  the  fact  that  this  change  has  been  scarcely 
recognised.  The  change  is  as  momentous  in 
the  intelligible  language  of  children  as  a 
change  of  language  itself  in  the  life  of  an 
adult.  For  the  most  part  we  are  talking  to 
the  children  of  the  city  as  if  in  Hindoo  or 
Arabic,  instead  of  in  the  only  tongue  which 
they  can  understand. 

The  environment  is  the  city ;  and  the  city 
is  new  in  the  history  of  the  world,  the  crea- 
tion of  a  single  century.  Men  have,  indeed, 
gathered  together  for  centres  of  business  or 
protection  in  all  ages  ;  and  the  centres  have 
been  dignified  with  the  title  of  town  or  city. 
But  these  little  collections  of  human  habita- 
tions of  the  past,  the  mediseval  town  with  its 
walls  and  churches,  and  swinging  bells,  or  the 
later  city  of  the  England  that  slept  through 
the  eighteenth  century,  all  unconscious  of  the 
change  which  was  even  then  knocking  at  its 


86       The  Child  and  Religion 

doors,  bear  no  sort  of  relationship  to  the  city- 
aggregation  of  to-day.  Pepys  visiting  Bristol 
200  years  ago — Bristol  then  the  second  city  of 
the  kingdom — was  astonished  at  the  monstrous 
nature  of  its  dimensions.  There  were  even 
places,  he  records,  where,  standing  in  the 
centre,  you  could  look  all  round  and  see 
nothing  but  houses.  But  this  was  entirely 
exceptional.  For  the  most  part  the  houses 
were  embedded  in  gardens,  nature  everywhere 
creeping  among  the  human  habitations ;  and 
man  walked  uncertainly,  still,  on  the  whole, 
the  occupant  of  a  camp  pitched  for  a  time 
only  in  the  midst  of  a  natural  world  which 
would  one  day  regain  its  supremacy  and 
triumph  over  the  ruins  of  his  building.  The 
old  life  was  the  life  of  the  field.  From  that 
life  has  been  built  the  literature  of  the  past. 
Through  that  life  all  spiritual  experience  has 
become  interpreted.  The  child  reared  under 
such  condition  may,  indeed,  have  exhibited 
the  stolidness  which  is  often  mistaken  for 
stupidity,  and  the  gravity,  accepted  as  a  lack 


The  Child  and  Environment     87 

of  intelligence,  which  offers  so  glaring  a 
contrast  to-day  between  the  child  of  the 
country  and  the  child  of  the  town.  For  two 
centuries,  at  least,  that  life  had  exhibited  a 
steady  decline  in  comfort,  until,  at  the  opening 
of  the  nineteenth  century  and  for  the  next  forty 
years,  the  English  peasant  appeared  of  all  men 
the  most  miserable.  But,  all  unconscious 
itself,  that  child  was  being  daily  moulded  by  the 
forces  which  had  moulded  the  constitution  of 
its  ancestors.  And  when  the  time  for  definite, 
human  teaching  came,  it  was  in  the  terms  of 
the  knowledge  already  thus  obtained,  through 
the  medium  of  natural  analogy,  and  linking 
on  to  the  stored-up  result  of  natural  im- 
pression, that  man  conveyed  his  conceptions 
of  ultimate  things  upon  the  mind  of  the 
generation  which  was  to  succeed  him.  I  am 
not  in  the  least  maintaining  that  the  com- 
parison of  the  condition  before  and  after  the 
change  evokes  no  other  emotions  but  regret. 
Progress  has  brought  many  good  things.  In 
any  case   it  is   impossible   to   turn   back  and 


88       The  Child  and  Religion 

re-create  a  vanished  past ;  nor  is  it  helpful  to 
rail  against  things  that  have  been  already- 
accomplished.  The  old  life,  at  least  in  the 
past  two  centuries,  was  incredibly  hard,  toilful, 
and  degraded.  The  city  has  been  the  method 
of  escape  from  intolerable  conditions,  and,  to 
many,  an  enormous  advance  on  any  test  of 
civilisation.  But  whether  the  city  be  better 
or  worse,  whether  economic  advance  and 
material  success  are  a  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  the  influence  of  natural  things,  at  least 
(and  this  is  the  point)  it  is  different.  "  They 
have  fine  clothes  and  houses  "  ; — so  runs  the 
challenge  of  the  old  peasants'  revolt  in  a  far- 
off  England — "  we  have  pain  and  labour ; 
the  rain  and  wind  in  the  fields."  That 
challenge  rings  down  through  all  the  centuries. 
But  at  worst  the  wind  was  that  which  blew 
where  it  listeth,  independent  of  man's  voli- 
tion ;  and  the  rain  made  alike  to  fall  upon  the 
just  and  the  unjust. 

The  child  of  the  new  city  race  is  now  develop- 
ing under  conditions  in  which  man's  volition 


The  Child  and   Environment     89 

is  the  only  thing  that  counts,  and  forces 
independent  of  it,  save  the  inertia  of  "  dead  " 
matter,  are  practically  non-existent.  That 
dead  matter  on  the  one  hand,  and  man  mould- 
ing it  to  his  desires  on  the  other,  are  the  two 
permanent  elements  of  its  universe.  It  is  a 
universe  which  no  one  has  yet  adequately 
interpreted,  because  literature  and  experience 
have  been  almost  entirely  limited  to  a  class 
whose  conditions  are  from  the  commencement 
entirely  different. 

A  recently-published  novel,  of  profound 
interest  to  the  student  of  the  times.  Slavery, 
by  Mr  Bart  Kennedy,  is  the  first  actual 
testimony  with  which  I  am  familiar,  by  a  child 
reared  in  the  city  abyss,  of  the  developing  life 
within  the  human  consciousness  as  gradually 
it  encounters  the  new  environment  which  is 
moulding  it  to  newer  developments.  There 
have  been  innumerable  novels  in  which  the 
writers  descend  into  the  depths  from  some 
different  universe  and  show  you  the  inhabitants, 
mournful  or  cheerful,  with  their  quaint  ways 


go       The  Child  and  Religion 

and  manners  of  speech,  and  queer,  distorted 
outlook  and  judgment  of  human  affairs.  The 
child  of  the  slum  or  the  tenement  is  the 
commonplace  of  pathos,  especially  in  the 
Christmas  story.  It  stands  a  pathetic  figure 
shivering  in  the  cold.  It  creeps  through  its 
unhappy  home.  It  dies  finally  forgiving  its 
enemies  about  Christmas  time  in  extremity  of 
pain.  But  in  all  these  cases  the  author  has 
never  actually  penetrated  into  the  child  mind. 
He  is  looking  into  the  abyss,  not  out  from 
it.  He  has  no  conception  of  a  life  in  which 
that  which  is  central  in  his  experience  is  on  the 
horizon  in  the  experience  of  another,  and  that 
on  the  circumference  has  become  central ;  an 
experience  in  which  the  individual  looks  out 
from  the  mean  street  or  block  dwelling  upon 
the  universe  and  gradually  constructs,  with 
these  as  their  essential  ingredients,  from  the 
changing  crowded  street,  the  grey  building, 
the  little  square,  box-like  tenement,  which 
still  bears,  as  a  survival  from  some  strange 
past  time,  the  name  of  home,  its  scheme  of  an 


The  Child  and  Environment     91 

external  world.  Mr  Kennedy,  in  chapters  all 
too  brief  and  fi'om  experience  actually  re- 
membered, has  taken  his  readers  into  the 
universe  thus  built  up  from  the  heart  of  the 
city.  The  great  seas  have  dwindled  into 
the  canal  in  which  the  boys  bathe.  The 
world  has  passed  from  a  world  of  colour  into  a 
world  of  grey.  The  little  Catholic  chapel  in 
the  heart  of  Manchester,  which  the  child 
attended  with  his  Irish  mother,  has  provided 
the  only  outlet,  with  its  lights  and  colour  and 
strange,  mystical  appeals,  from  the  set  surround- 
ings of  material  things.  Beyond  the  city  roofs 
is  a  glimpse  of  a  changing  sky,  mysterious, 
irrational,  which  sends,  now  the  fog,  now  the 
hot  sunshine,  and  now  the  winter  rain.  The 
universe  has  become  a  place  where  man  is 
and  abides,  capricious,  irrational,  with  nothing 
about  him  secure  and  dependable  and  certain. 
The  street  cars,  the  crowded  pavements, 
the  aspect  of  the  shops  in  the  more  brilliant 
thoroughfares,  form  a  margin  round  the  intimate 
experience  of  a   consciousness  built  up  from 


92       The  Child  and  ReHgion 

the  narrow  street  of  crowded  tenements. 
When  this  child  has  already  fashioned  its 
universe  from  these  elements,  there  comes  to  it 
the  experience  of  a  day  in  the  country  through 
a  Sunday-school  treat,  and  a  new  world  is 
opened  for  a  moment,  of  green  and  growing 
things.  But  the  experience  is  fantastic,  vanish- 
ing, not  linked  up  to  anything  of  the  normal 
life  of  the  day ;  and  it  passes  again  into  the 
world  of  dreams.  The  human  element  has 
become  all-powerful,  the  element  which  makes 
for  restlessness ;  the  nature  element,  which 
makes  for  quiet,  has  practically  disappeared. 

Here  is  the  new  environment,  common  to 
all  and  independent  of  the  particular  questions 
of  poverty  or  of  morality.  To  some  it  is  the 
life  of  the  slum,  full  of  noise  and  discomfort ; 
and  all  the  earlier  impression  is  of  an  irrational 
and  loveless  world.  To  others  it  is  the  life  of 
the  respectable  street,  carefully  cleansed  and 
orderly,  the  row  of  two-storied  cottages  built 
of  grey  brick,  with  the  little  area  in  front  and 
the  little  yard  behind,  and  each  with  its  little 


The  Child  and   Environment     93 

kitchen  and  sleeping  room  and  kindly  family 
life.  To  others  again  it  is  a  higher  stage,  with 
bow- windows  and  white  curtains  and  a  sacred 
parlour  brightly  ornamented,  and  at  the  back 
a  tiny  garden  developing  in  mysterious  fashion, 
at  the  right  season,  nasturtiums  or  sunflowers. 
But  in  all  it  is  existence  set  in  and  developing 
to  maturity  in  a  labyrinth  of  human  habita- 
tions. The  child,  like  the  astonished  Pepys  at 
Bristol,  can  everywhere  look  around  him,  and 
everywhere  see  nothing  but  houses.  Nature 
has  passed  to  the  circumference  of  experience. 
The  occasional  excursion  to  a  park,  the 
occasional  day's  outing,  makes  no  permanent 
impression  when  confronted  with  that  solid, 
stored-up  influence  of  the  paved  street  and  the 
crowded  abode  of  men.  The  child,  whether 
neglected  or  well  cared  for,  developing  in  a 
queer,  twilight  world,  where  family  existence 
is  unknown,  or,  as  in  the  majority,  enthroned 
as  the  most  important  member  of  the  little 
community,  is  growing  to  maturity  under  new 
conditions,  in  which  the  things  that  formerly 


94       The  Child  and  Religion 

encompassed  him  have  disappeared  and  a  new 
storm  of  sensation  beats  upon  the  mind  as  it 
awakens  into  conscious  response  to  an  external 
world. 

The  description  may  sound  exaggerated  by 
those  who,  on  the  one  hand,  would  emphasise 
the  survival  of  nature  still  left  in  the  town,  or, 
on  the  other,  the  facilities  for  means  of  escape 
so  bountifully  provided  at  the  present.  From 
my  own  experience  certainly  of  the  greatest 
and  most  advanced  of  these  aggregations,  I 
should  be  inclined  to  estimate  as  of  little 
permanent  influence  either  of  these  factors. 
The  parks,  sparsely  scattered  through  the 
congested  districts  of  London,  have  but  little 
actual  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  growing 
children  not  living  in  immediate  contact  with 
them.  It  is  astonishing  to  find  how  httle 
they  are  utilised  as  means  of  escape,  even  at 
the  height  of  summer,  from  the  paved, 
crowded  street.  A  census  taken  at  an  ele- 
mentary school  some  little  distance  from  one 
of  the  parks,  would  prove,  I  think,  astonishing 


The  Child  and  Environment     95 

to  those  who  imagine  these  as  the  breathing 
places  and  playgrounds  for  any  large  number 
of  the  children  in  the  neighbourhood.  I  have 
met  numbers  of  children  in  Camberwell  who 
have  never  seen  the  river  Thames  and  never 
crossed  any  of  the  bridges.  And  to  the 
average  child  any  park  of  South  London  in 
the  neighbourhood  would  be,  for  the  most 
part,  but  visited  in  a  rare  excursion  during  a 
few  hours  of  sunshine,  and  would  be  as  little 
impressive  upon  the  growing  organism  of  the 
mind  as  any  other  chance  visit  to  any  other 
land  of  phantasy.  And  all  the  facilities  of 
travel  again  in  reality  offer  very  little  modi- 
fication to  the  experience  of  the  growing  city 
race.  An  enormous  proportion  of  the  children 
in  the  elementary  schools  have  never  spent 
a  night  away  from  their  homes.  The  day 
excursion,  the  Sunday-school  treat,  have 
become  more  and  more  specialised  into  a  kind 
of  experience  in  which  a  tiny  portion  of  the 
town  is  for  a  moment  conveyed  into  an  ampler 
space  with  room  for  expansion   and   activity. 


96       The  Child  and  ReUgion 

The  trains  pour  their  bands  of  excursionists 
down  to  recognised  places  of  catering,  in  which 
a  few  thousand  children,  for  a  few  hours 
in  the  day,  enjoy  an  exhilarating  tiifie  amid 
a  wilderness  of  merry-go-rounds,  cocoanut 
"shies,"  donkey  races,  and  all  the  recognised 
apparatus  of  the  bank  holiday. 

There  are,  of  course,  incursions  of  a  longer 
period  into  this  queer,  outside  universe,  such 
as  the  fortnight  in  the  country  provided  by 
philanthropic  societies.  Here  is,  indeed,  an 
experience  which  can  make  ineffaceable  im- 
pressions in  the  pliant  material  of  the  growing 
mind,  and  enable  a  world  of  quiet  and  large 
spaces  and  growing  things  to  become  "  part  of 
the  child."  But  the  experience  at  the  best  is 
only  for  the  few,  and  even  for  these  few  (and 
I  speak  here  with  some  experience),  the 
impression  is  often  more  astonishing  than 
lasting.  The  universe  is  not  a  universe  where 
nature  is,  but  one  where  man  is  not.  The 
silence  is  more  impressive  than  the  appeal. 
The  life  is  as  isolated  as  a  dream  and  never 


The  Child  and  Environment     97 

co-ordinated  with  the  normal  experience  of 
the  growing  mind.  On  the  return  to  the  city 
that  experience,  as  it  were,  pieces  together 
again  over  the  gap  ;  and  the  impression  of  that 
queer,  outside  world  of  distant  horizons  and 
clean  meadows  and  tranquillity  is  relegated 
into  the  memories  of  things  faint  and  far 
away. 

The  first  effect  of  this  change,  the  most 
obvious  but  less  profound,  is  the  actual  lack 
of  stored-up  concepts  in  the  child  mind  to 
which  can  be  linked  the  new  impressions  of 
the  teacher.  The  word  falls,  as  it  were,  dull 
and  heavy  and  isolated,  instead  of  awakening 
associations  and  memories  which  set  it  re- 
sounding through  the  chambers  of  the  soul. 
It  is  of  little  use,  for  example,  to  exhort  the 
child  to  consider  the  lilies  of  the  field  how 
they  grow,  if  the  only  knowledge  of  such 
lilies  is  given  by  the  dried-up  specimen  in  the 
elementary  school  which  has  been  laboriously 
catalogued  as  belonging  to  the  Monocotyle- 
donous  Liliaceae.     Few  people  realise  the  im- 


98       The  Child  and   Religion 

portance  which  these  processes  of  nature 
occupy  in  the  early  teaching  of  rehgion. 
The  child's  mind  of  necessity  demands  some- 
thing concrete.  Spiritual  forces  must  be 
interpreted  By  the  analogy  of  natural  things. 
In  consequence  there  is  the  whole  apparatus 
of  parable  and  illustration  through  which,  for 
so  many  centuries,  have  been  conveyed  the 
interpretations  of  the  laws  of  the  spiritual 
universe.  Let  anyone  take  for  himself  a 
simple  test.  Let  him  go  through  a  few 
chapters  of  the  Bible,  especially  of  the  gospels, 
pen  in  hand,  and  carefully  eliminate  any  text 
which  demands  for  its  clear  understanding  the 
recognition  of  some  intelligible  acquaintance- 
ship with  natural  processes.  He  will  be 
astonished  at  the  immense  rents  and  gaps  in 
the  recognised  teaching,  the  mere  fragments 
which  remain.  The  sower  sowing  his  seed, 
the  seed  which  grows  in  secret,  the  ripening 
harvest,  the  sun  setting  red  on  the  horizon, 
night  on  the  mountain,  the  sea  in  storm — \ 
these   are   the   visions   and   parables    through 


The  Child  and   Environment     99 

which  is  built  up  the  picture  both  of  the  first 
coming  of  the  kingdom  in  a  land  of  sunshine 
and  flowers,  and  of  the  laws  of  that  kingdom 
in  all  future  time.  It  would  be  an  extraordi- 
narily interesting  study,  were  it  in  the  least 
degree  possible,  actually  to  examine  in  the 
mind  of  the  city  child,  who  has  no  other 
experience  but  that  of  the  city,  the  meaning 
of  such  conceptions  as  these.  Psychological 
analysis  has  shown  that  in  nearly  all  normal 
children  the  process  of  thought  acts  im- 
mediately through  visualisation.  It  is  in 
pictorial  concepts  that  the  mind  utilises  the 
material  which  has  been  given  from  external 
impression.  What  kind  of  pictorial  concept 
of  the  cornfield  or  the  harvest,  the  world  of 
growing  things  in  fair  weather  or  lowering 
skies,  is  provided  as  material  for  thought  in 
impressions  gathered  exclusively  in  the  city 
labyrinth  ?  All  unconsciously  the  teacher 
assumes  in  the  child  mind  the  same  material 
and  atmospheres  which  he  himself  possesses ; 
and  is  inclined   sometimes   to   wonder,  some- 


loo     The  Child  and  Religion 

times  to  anger,  at  the  lack  of  real  response 
or  interest  in  descriptions  which  mean  much 
to  the  one  and  nothing  to  the  other. 

An  illustration  in  a  particular,  special  sub- 
ject is  provided  by  an  examination  of  the 
hymns  which,  in  the  recollection  of  any  grown- 
up person,  were  the  hymns  most  popular 
in  the  days  of  his  childhood.  In  my  own 
case  (and  this  is  a  personal  testimony  only),  I 
was  interested,  in  an  attempt  to  analyse  their 
charm,  to  find  that  in  almost  every  example 
the  particular  verses  contained  some  definite 
allusion  to  the  external  world  of  Nature. 
Immediately  and  quite  unconsciously,  perhaps, 
the  words  called  up  before  the  sensitive  child 
mind  some  vision  of  stored-up  memory ;  and 
in  that  call  and  response  rested  much  of  the 
attraction.  "Lead,  kindly  light,"  is  a  hymn 
always  popular  with  children,  although  the 
experience  of  the  hymn  itself  is  entirely 
beyond  their  range,  and,  indeed,  their  singing 
of  it  appears  almost  grotesque.  "Edna  Lyall"  I 
is  at  pains,  in  one  of  her  books,  to  analyse  this 


i 


The  Child  and  Environment     loi 

popularity,  and  is  inclined  to  refer  it  to  the 
fact  of  its  simplicity  in  its  pure,  Saxon  English. 
But  much  more  than  this  I  think  the  appeal 
strikes  home  in  its  flashing  Nature  visions  of 
light  and  gloom,  in  which  for  a  moment  are 
illuminated  moor  and  fen,  crag  and  torrent. 
So,  again,  a  hymn  which  naturally  would 
make  but  little  appeal  to  the  child  mind — 

When  this  passing  world  is  done, 
When  has  sunk  yon  glaring  sun, 

was  always  welcome  because  always  immedi- 
ately flashing  before  the  inward  eye  vision 
the  memory  of  red  sunsets  upon  wide  horizons 
through  which  there  came  to  be  interpreted  all 
the  dreams  of  the  fiery  magnificence  in  the 
ending  of  a  world.  This  concrete  allusion, 
this  tiny  picture  called  up  by  association  from 
the  stored-up  impressions  of  the  past,  is  the 
secret  of  all  these  appeals :  in  one  the  ''gather- 
ing waters,*'  in  another  ''  fields  beyond  the 
swelling  flood,"  in  another,  a  "green  hill  far 
away,''  in  another  the  gathering  darkness  and 


I02     The  Child  and  Religion 

the  stars  appearing,  and  birds  and  beasts  and 
flowers  preparing  for  sleep.  These  and  a 
hundred  other  examples  demand  the  presence 
for  the  awakening  emotion  of  a  certain  uni- 
verse within  the  mind  of  the  child.  If  that 
universe  is  to  be,  as  now  for  so  many,  nothing 
but  the  straight  street  and  the  sky  peeping 
over  the  roofs  of  innumerable  houses,  we 
shall  be  compelled  to  modify  our  children's 
hymnology,  to  write  in  that  pictorial  language 
and  analogy  which  the  child  reared  in  such 
an  atmosphere  alone  can  comprehend. 

I  have  no  wish  to  over-emphasise  this 
particular  point,  or  to  appear  fanciful  or 
sentimental  in  the  treatment  of  nature  and 
its  exact  relation  to  the  religious  conscious- 
ness. It  is  entirely  true  that  for  the  many 
nature  itself,  as  actually  given  in  an  external 
world  through  which  God  moves  and  operates, 
provides  no  real  assistance  to  religious  faith. 
The  old  primitive  religion  of  the  Vedas  or 
the  Norse  mythology  may  weave  out  of 
natural   forces   and   from   close   contact   with] 


The  Child  and  Environment     103 

them  its  visions  of  God's  working  and  the 
presence  of  the  Divine.  Mankind  again  at 
the  end  of  the  long  journey  may  perhaps 
find  an  ultimate  consolation  in  life,  either 
with  Wordsworth  in  mystic  contemplation  of 
natural  things — the  discovery  which  cheered 
John  Stuart  Mill,  as  he  thought  of  the 
weariness  of  the  golden  age  to  come — or  with 
Maeterlinck  in  the  cultivation  of  the  garden 
of  flowers.  But  for  the  many  such  an 
exultant  pasan  of  triumph  as  the  104th  Psalm 
has  now  but  little  meaning.  And  in  any 
case  the  direct  appeal  to  the  evidence  of 
God  in  nature  is  not  an  appeal  to  which 
children  can  respond.  The  detached  con- 
templation of  a  world  entirely  outside  the 
mind,  the  evidence  of  order  or  of  beauty 
there  displayed,  only  comes  at  the  comple- 
tion of  a  long  course  of  education.  The 
child  has  not  yet  learnt  to  contemplate  any- 
thing but  its  own  world  itself,  which  is  all 
its  universe. 

Nor  would  I  over-emphasise  the  argument 


I04    The  Child  and  ReHgion 

stated  finally  in  literature  in  the  great  ode 
upon  "  Intimations  of  Immortality  in  Child- 
hood." The  experience  there  given  of  a  unity 
and  exaltation  in  the  earlier  years  in  presence 
of  natural  things,  the  light  that  shines  into 
the  mind  of  the  child  from  every  meadow, 
grove,  and  stream,  when 

The  earth  and  every  common  sight 
To  me  did  seem 
Apparelled  in  celestial  light, 

is  not,  it  must  be  confessed  with  some  sad- 
ness, an  experience  of  any  but  the  few.  And 
to  most  of  us,  instead  of  the  vision  fading 
into  the  light  of  the  common  day,  experience 
is  such  that  every  year  creates  a  greater 
response  to  nature's  beauty,  a  greater  longing 
for  all  that  is  meant  by  the  appeal  of  its 
yearly  renewal.  I  have  no  doubt  that  even 
here  the  changed  environment  is  creating 
changed  conditions,  that  apart  from  any  con- 
scious material  presentation,  the  child  who 
has  been  brought  up  in  the  field  will  be 
different  from  the  child  who  has  been  brought 


The  Child  and  Environment     105 

up  in  the  city.  But  the  particular  point 
I  am  emphasising  is  a  matter  of  pictorial 
language,  of  a  language  which,  with  each 
generation  of  city-bred  people,  is  becoming 
more  archaic  and  unintelligible  as  it  summons 
them  to  contemplation  of  worlds  beyond  the 
horizon  of  the  only  world  which  they  have 
ever  known. 

The  second  effect  of  this  changed  environ- 
ment operates  not  through  the  absence  of 
nature  but  the  presence  of  man.  For  the 
first  time  in  history  the  child  is  being  reared 
in  the  perpetual  contact  of  a  crowd.  Its 
playground  is  the  crowded  street :  its  home 
the  crowded  tenement :  its  school  the  gigantic 
human  hive  in  which  it  is  packed  with  900 
or  1600  creatures  similar  to  itself.  This 
is  the  human  element  making  for  unrest. 
Unrest,  resulting  in  profound  mental  changes, 
is  to  prove  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the 
new  city  race.  The  result,  as  all  familiar 
with  our  town  children  know,  is  a  forced 
and  premature  development.     The  child  lives 


io6     The  Child  and  Religion 

on  the  surface.  It  is  immediately  responsive 
to  all  advances.  It  makes  friends  in  a 
moment.  Shyness,  stolidity,  and  reticence 
are  unknown  qualities,  except  when  created 
by  actual  physical  disease.  The  child  lives 
in  a  coloured  world  of  movement,  of  life 
continually  changing,  a  kaleidoscope,  a  pano- 
rama of  passing  impressions.  The  price  paid 
in  this  expenditure  of  a  slender  store  of 
capital  is  undoubtedly  a  heavy  one.  The 
town  child  is  far  more  attractive  than  the 
child  of  the  country.  In  presence  of  the 
quick  vivacity  and  ready  affection  of  the 
one,  the  other  appears  heavy,  dull,  and  in- 
different. But  that  vivacity  and  quick  re- 
sponse are  the  result  of  fires  burning  all 
too  quickly,  using  up  material  that  will  be 
dearly  required  in  the  later  years.  For 
the  moment  it  is  prepared  to  do  anything. 
Its  nerves  will  carry  it  through  the  most 
hazardous  enterprise.  The  Httle,  fragile  body 
has  become  an  instrument  pliant  to  the  too- 
quickly  developing  will  and  emotion.     But  the 


The  Child  and  Environment     107 

result  is  seen  and  the  price  paid  in  later 
years,  in  the  disquieting  change  which  sweeps 
over  the  city-reared  populations  after  the  time 
of  adolescence,  and  finally  creates  that  "city 
race "  which  is  so  menacing  a  vision  of  the 
future.  It  is  a  race  lacking  in  intellectual 
interest,  demanding  the  cruder  forms  of  ex- 
citement in  betting  or  drink,  or  the  more 
violent  melodrama  or  newspaper  mendacities ; 
galvanised,  only  hardly,  and  for  a  moment, 
into  interest  in  passing  things  ;  lacking  just 
that  stability  and  tenacity  and  capacity  for 
"holding  on"  which  was  the  old,  national 
characteristic  of  the  English  race. 

Whether  the  city  population  by  itself,  if 
surrounded  with  a  ring  fence,  could  survive 
for  many  generations,  is  still  a  debated  point 
among  social  observers.  There  are  those 
who  challenge  the  production  of  a  Cockney 
of  three  generations.  Certainly  the  enormous 
influx  of  the  country  populations  into  the 
capital  has  at  the  present  time  concealed 
largely  the  actual  result  of  the  city  environ- 


io8     The  Child  and  Religion 

ment  acting  on  the  pure  city  stock.  But  with 
each  year  this  influence  diminishes  as  the 
proportion  of  the  city-bred  rises  and  of 
country-bred  falls. 

Disquietude  at  the  result  of  childhood 
reared  in  narrow  streets  and  tiny  crowded 
homes  is  becoming  vocal  in  the  agitation  con- 
cerning alleged  physical  deterioration,  and  the 
public  is  exhorted — in  advice  not  lacking  in 
humour — to  adopt  systems  of  physical  flexions 
or  the  marching  and  drill  of  military  prepara- 
tion, as  a  sufficient  remedy  for  the  cramping 
influences  of  the  city  environment.  In  the 
future  more  and  more  that  city  will  find 
itself  dependent  upon  itself:  the  father  and 
mother  reared  within  its  labyrinth,  uniting  to 
raise  a  family  under  similar  conditions,  with 
the  memories  of  any  other  kind  of  childhood 
becoming  ever  more  faint  and  far  away. 

A  third  result  of  this  environment  is  the 
disintegrating  force  which  it  is  continually 
beating  down  upon  the  family  life.  The  block 
dwelling  and  the  tenement  house  have  already 


The  Child  and  Environment     109 

advanced  some  way  towards  the  abolition  of 
the  old,  traditional  home  of  the  Englishman. 
More  and  more  as  one  watches  the  play  of 
these  tremendous  forces  —  the  force  of  the 
crowd,  the  force  of  the  aggregation  of  human 
lives,  the  force  of  everything  making  against 
security  and  privacy,  and  the  staple  growth 
of  associations  and  memories  linked  to  par- 
ticular places — the  more  one  becomes  con- 
vinced of  the  inevitable  moulding  of  human 
character  into  conformity  with  the  only 
conditions  by  which  those  forces  can  attain 
equilibrium.  Dr  Reich,  in  his  recently 
published  Imperialisvi,  has  announced  that 
the  Imperialistic  civilisation  carried  to  its 
natural  consummation,  such  as  that  now 
exhibited  in  America,  demands  the  abolition 
of  reticence  and  individual  life,  the  common 
eating  house,  the  common  place  of  meeting, 
meals  provided  by  companies  and  children 
educated  by  telephone,  with  the  vanishing 
of  the  particular  and  local  affections  which 
make   up  the  life   of  the  family.     It  is   not 


no    The  Child  and  Religion 

Imperialism  but  the  city  state,  or  rather 
perhaps  it  is  the  city  state  as  an  example 
of  what  this  writer  means  by  Imperialism, 
which  is  making  for  this  change.  This  is 
something  larger  than  the  mere  mournful 
commonplace  of  the  vanishing  of  family  life 
before  the  extremities  of  proverty  or  of  crime. 
At  the  base  of  the  city's  activities,  clinging 
like  a  fungus  round  its  foundations,  is  that 
class  in  which  family  life  has  deliberately 
vanished,  in  which  the  child  lives  in  the 
street,  and  meals  are  thrown  to  it,  as  it 
were,  from  an  upper  window,  and  the  home 
has  become  a  mere  lair  in  which  the  creatures 
get  themselves  together  for  a  few  troubled 
hours  of  slumber.  The  existence  of  this 
class,  and  the  methods  of  raising  it  to  some 
more  intelligible  condition  of  being,  form  a 
special  problem.  But  this  class  is  not  the 
staple  material  out  of  which  the  congested 
populations  are  composed.  The  ordinary  life 
in  one  of  such  labour  cities  as  those  which 
surround  the  interior  of  I^ondon,  still  retains 


The  Child  and  Environment     in 

the  decencies  of  family  existence,  with  a 
loyalty  to  the  clan,  strong  affections  between 
parent  and  child,  a  resolve  together  to  fight 
the  battle  of  existence  against  a  world  out- 
side which  is  hostile  or  indifferent.  But  it 
is  upon  this  staple  material  of  which  the  race 
is  woven  that  the  forces  of  disintegration  are 
ceaselessly  beating.  Interest  becomes  more 
and  more  transferred  to  the  land  that  lies 
outside  the  front  door.  Movement  con- 
tinually is  awakened  by  that  kind  of  vague 
restlessness  with  w^hich  the  life  of  the  crowd 
appears  to  infect  the  individuals.  A  family 
group  may  keep  in  a  certain  neighbourhood 
for  reasons  of  work  or  interest,  but  within 
that  neighbourhood  they  will  be  continually 
moving  from  tenement  to  tenement  or  cottage 
to  cottage.  The  seeds  of  local  affection  are 
pulled  up  before  they  have  had  time  to  take 
root.  The  particular  children's  interests  — 
tame  animals,  growing  plants  and  flowers, 
the  natural  litter  and  disorder  which  is  the 
creation  and   delight   of  the   child   mind — of 


112     The  Child  and   Religion 

necessity  become  nuisances  where  man  is 
so  closely  packed  with  man.  The  "kindred 
points  of  heaven  and  home"  are  vanishing 
from  an  environment  in  which  heaven  is  but 
the  gUmpse  of  bright  or  clouded  sky  between 
the  roofs  of  high  dwellings,  and  home  a 
cubicle  box  planed  to  its  simplest  possibilities, 
and  embedded  in  a  huge  cliff  of  similar 
desirable  mansions. 

How  far  the  development  of  this  environ- 
ment will  persist  in  its  present  courses  is  an 
uncertain  factor.  That  it  should  persist  in  its 
present  condition  is  inconceivable.  The  thing 
is  moving  as  we  gaze  ;  and  the  present  reveals 
a  state  of  change  whose  ultimate  result  no 
man  can  foresee.  There  are  some  who  accept 
what  I  suppose  would  be  regarded  as  the 
kindlier  view,  such  as  Mr  H.  G.  Wells  in 
his  later  prophecies  of  the  future.  These 
see  mechanical  advance  destroying  what 
mechanical  advance  has  created.  Immense 
improvement  in  locomotion  and  in  the 
transmission   of  power  will    redistribute    the 


The  Child  and  Environment     113 

population  over  the  surrounding  countryside. 
And  the  ancient  sanities,  quiet,  the  sun  and 
the  rain,  "  Night  with  her  train  of  stars  and 
her  great  gift  of  sleep,"  will  return  again  to 
become  ''  part  of  the  child."  If  this  be  true,  a 
period  of  perhaps  less  than  a  century  will  be 
marked  by  the  historian  of  the  future  as  a 
passing  phase  in  which  the  populations  silently 
heaped  themselves  together  into  menacing 
aggregations,  and  as  silently  again  fell  apart. 
And  the  problem  of  the  environment  of  the 
city  child  will  appear  but  as  the  problem  of  a 
passing  condition  of  restlessness  and  fever, 
leaving  its  impression,  indeed,  upon  all  the 
race  which  has  passed  through  this  particular 
condition,  but  remaining,  on  the  whole,  little 
but  a  disquieting  memory.  The  life  in  the 
choked  streets  of  the  city  will  be  remembered, 
a  challenge  and  warning,  just  as  the  period 
when  Israel  became  the  slaves  of  Egypt  before 
the  time  of  the  deliverance  became,  in  the 
national  history,  a  perpetual  subject  of  future 

menace  and  rejoicing. 

8 


114     The  Child  and  Religion 

There   are   others,   however,   who   adopt   a 
different  forecast   of  the   future.      They   see 
man  passing   definitely   into    the    city    state. 
More  and  more  he  will  find  the  life  of  nature 
impossible.     The  country  with  its  silence  and 
appeals  will  only  terrify  him.     If  he  escape  for 
a   moment   from  the  presence  of  man  it  will 
only  be  to  a  Margate  or  a  Hampstead  Heath 
in    the    daytime,    from   which    he   will   very 
rapidly   return   into   the   well-known,   lighted 
streets  when  darkness  falls.     The   process   of 
his  evolution  commenced  with  Nature  insistent 
and  triumphant,  as  he  crept  fearfully  through 
the  forests  or  over  the  great  plains,  embedded, 
as   it  were,   in  natural  things,  brother  to  the 
fire  and  the  other  brute  creations  from  which 
his     own     life     sprang.       It    will     be    com- 
pleted with  Nature  altogether  divorced  from 
him   in   that   kind   of  city   of  which   a  fore- 
taste is  arising  even  now   on   the   other   side 
of  the  Atlantic,  where  whole  populations  are 
contained   within   gigantic   buildings,    human 
hives   in  which   they  can  be  born  and  marry 


The  Child  and  Environment     115 

and  die  without  ever  having  seen  the  world 
outside.  If  this  be  the  development,  then  the 
changes  here  indicated  in  the  necessities  of 
education  will  be  carried  to  their  logical 
limits.  The  language  not  only  of  the  printed 
book,  but  of  the  ideas  which  that  printed 
book  endeavours  to  convey,  will  be  reinter- 
preted into  the  experience  of  a  new  universe. 
We  shall  conceive  of  a  race  living  evermore 
on  the  surface,  quick,  sensitive,  responsive, 
with  a  human  interest  taking  the  place  of  the 
nature  element.  New  parables,  new  fairy 
tales,  new  methods  of  interpreting  the  meaning 
of  unseen  and  spiritual  forces,  will  be  created 
by  a  race  to  whom  in  time  the  literature  of  the 
present,  which  has  survived  from  the  past, 
would  be  as  unintelligible  as  the  Sanscrit 
Scriptures,  as  meaningless  as  the  Celtic  ima- 
gery to  the  present  inhabitant  of  Pentonville 
or  Brixton. 

In  either  of  these  developments  there  would 
be  a  certain  security.  The  difficulty  of  the 
present  is  the  uncertainty.    We  are  half  in  the 


ii6     The  Child  and  Religion 

one  universe,  half  in  the  other  ;  wandering,  as 
the  poet  of  this  later  dawn  announced,  between 
two  worlds,  one  dead,  the  other  powerless  to  be 
born.  And  the  enormous  obstacles  facing  all 
elementary  education  among  those  classes 
particularly  affected  by  the  change,  and  the 
failure  of  religion  in  any  way  adequately 
to  influence  the  springs  of  action  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  the  modern  city,  is  undoubtedly 
very  largely  due  to  the  condition  of  man,  who 
all  unconsciously  has  passed  from  one  condition 
of  being  and  yet  not  recognised  the  laws  and 
limitations  of  his  new  life. 

My  function  in  this  essay  is  only  to  em- 
phasise the  actual  conditions  of  the  environ- 
ment of  the  child  and  the  changes  this 
environment  is  creating  in  the  organisation 
of  that  child's  mind.  I  am  asked  neither  to 
approve  nor  to  condemn.  It  would  be  foolish 
in  a  work  dealing  specifically  with  education 
and  the  children,  to  attempt  to  outline  either 
mitigations   of  the  more  harassing  difficulties 


The  Child  and  Environment     117 

of  a  great  social  change,  or  any  large  sugges- 
tions for  complete  transformation  of  the 
present  operating  forces.  That  environment, 
however,  has  factors  w^hich  in  the  future  must 
be  considered  by  those  who  would  organise 
future  teaching,  moral  and  spiritual,  as  much 
as  physical  and  intellectual.  These  factors 
must  be  frankly  faced.  There  is  just  the 
vanishing  of  the  nature  element,  the  loss  of 
that  accumulation  of  presentation  material  to 
which  the  descriptions  of  biblical  scenes  and 
the  analogy  of  spiritual  forces  must  always 
make  in  the  mind  of  the  child  a  primary 
appeal.  There  is  the  danger,  therefore,  lest 
religious  teaching  should  of  necessity  become 
mere  hard,  dogmatic  outline  committed  to 
memory,  neither  stimulating  in  its  direct 
meaning  nor  actually  incorporated  into  the 
constitution  of  the  mind  of  the  growing  child. 
There  is  the  danger  also  lest  a  mind  growing 
up,  as  Burne-Jones  described  his  childhood  in 
the  grey  streets  of  Birmingham,  "starved  of 
beauty,"   should  find   itself  in  later  years  de- 


ii8     The  Child  and  Religion 

prived  of  the  capacity  to  respond  to  one  of 
the  greatest  of  all  appeals,  of  the  triumphant 
working  in  this  world  of  the  energies  of  God. 
Second,  as  I  have  said,  there  is  the  human 
element  making  for  restlessness,  creating  a 
premature  development,  an  excitability  for 
which  the  price  must  afterwards  be  paid. 
And  here  also  religious  education  must  accept 
this  as  a  present  fact  and  must  endeavour  to 
exercise  influences  towards  tranquillity  and 
quietness.  The  city  race  will  prove,  on  the 
one  hand,  more  and  more  susceptible  to  the 
emotional  influence  of  a  ''  revival "  ;  but,  on  the 
other,  I  am  afraid,  more  and  more  manifest- 
ing the  speedy  evanescence  of  that  influence 
when  the  actual  machinery  of  its  stimulus  is 
withdrawn.  And,  third,  the  environment  is 
making  for  the  abolition  of  family  life.  Un- 
doubtedly here  are  large  possibilities  of  an 
appeal  to  a  communal  sense  of  fellowship  and 
the  incorporation  of  the  individual  into 
membership  of  a  larger  association.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  cannot  but  remember  that  of 


i 


The  Child  and  Environment     119 

all    the    methods    of  translation   of  spiritual 
realities  into  terms   of  human   interpretation, 
those    most    sure    and    insistent   were   those 
accepted   from   the   mystical  bonds  of  family 
union.     "  When  ye  pray  say  '  Our  Father.'  " 
That  is  the  bedrock  conception  of  the  Chris- 
tian view  of  the  overlordship  of  the  universe. 
It  is   for   religious   education   to   insist   upon 
the  sacred   and   unchangeable  nature   of  this 
reality  of  the  everlasting  obligations  incurred 
in  the  relationship  of  husband  and  wife,  father 
and   son,  brother  and  sister ;  to  demand  that 
in  no  future  development  of  city  or  Imperial 
civilisation  this  obligation  shall  be   neglected 
or  destroyed. 

C.  F.  G.  MASTERMAN. 

Addington  Square, 
Camberwell. 


Ill 

THE  CHILD'S  CAPACITY  FOR 
RELIGION 

In  a  broad  way  it  may  be  said  that  the 
child's  capacity  for  religion  is  no  less  than 
the  sum-total  of  all  its  capacities  of  thinking, 
feeling,  and  willing  as  a  human  being.  The 
psychological  study  of  the  religious  conscious- 
ness is  fast  making  it  clear  that  religion  is 
no  abnormal  product,  much  less  a  disease,  of 
man's  mind.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  out- 
come of  the  natural  and  normal  activities  of 
human  nature, — as  truly  and  almost  as  cer- 
tainly as  to  evolve  language,  to  constitute 
society,  or  to  have  and  to  exercise  moral 
sentiments  and  judgments  on  matters  of  right 
and  wrong  conduct.  Again,  the  researches 
of  comparative   religion   have   made   it   clear 

120 


Capacity  for   Religion        121 

that  "the  history  of  religions  is  the  history 
of  religious  man."  It  is  man  as  a  religious 
animal  who  makes  religions,  as  truly  as  it  is 
man  as  a  speaking  animal  who  makes  lan- 
guages ;  or  man  as  a  social  animal  who  makes 
society  and  the  different  forms  of  social 
organisation. 

If  by  "  primitive  man "  we  do  not  mean 
some  wholly  hypothetical  being  that  is  not  as 
yet  quite  human,  but  do  mean  man  in  the 
lowest  condition  of  race-culture  in  which  we 
actually  find  him  ;  and  if  we  give  a  sufficiently 
liberal  interpretation  to  the  term  "  religious  "  ; 
then  we  seem  to  be  warranted  in  affirming 
that  all  men,  including  the  most  nearly  primi- 
tive, are  naturally  religious.  The  assumption 
that  every  normally  constituted  offspring  of 
the  human  species  has  a  capacity  for  religion 
is,  therefore,  warranted  by  the  study  of  man 
as  a  religious  being,  as  well  as  of  religion  in 
its  historical  development.  It  is  human  to  be 
religious.  It  is  something  less  than  human, 
or   more    than    human,    or    somehow    extra- 


122     The  Child  and   Religion 

human,  not  to  be  religious.  This  conviction 
may  be  confidently  asserted  in  the  name  of 
modern  psychological  and  historical  science. 

The  same  studies  are  slowly  but  firmly 
establishing  another  allied  conviction.  The 
roots  of  religion  in  human  nature  and  in! 
I  human  history  are  manifold  and  w^idely  rami- 
I  fying.  This  statement  is  proved  true,  whether 
we  have  regard  chiefly  to  the  individual  or 
chiefly  to  the  race.  We  cannot,  indeed, 
identify  the  so-called  religious  nature  of  man 
with  either  the  moral  or  social  or  the  intel- 
lectual and  rational  nature.  Neither  can  we 
resolve  the  religious  experience  wholly  into  a 
matter  of  instinct,  or  of  impulse,  or  of  the  so- 
called  "  subconscious  "  or  "  subliminal."  Its 
phenomena  are  neither  exclusively  those  of 
feeling,  or  of  thinking,  or  of  willing.  It  is 
a  complex,  involving  all  these  and,  perhaps, 
even  other  elements.  As  being  just  that 
complex  which  it  naturally  is,  it  admits  of 
an  almost  indefinite  variability ;  while  at  the 
same  time  maintaining  a   marvellous  contin- 


i 


Capacity  for  Religion        123 

uity  and   even   spiritual   unity.     Just   as   the 

languages  and  ethical  sentiments  and  practices 

of  man   vary   almost   indefinitely,   so   do   the 

capacities    and    experiences    of    the    life     of 

religion.     As  yet  religion,  quite  as   much   as 

language  or  morals,  expresses  and  effectuates 

the  spiritual  unity  of  the  race.     At  the  risk  of 

being  misunderstood  I  will  venture  to  affirm  :  \ 

/Every  individual  man,  who  is  normal,  has  his 

I  own  peculiar  form   of   religious    experience  ; 

I  and  yet  by  this  experience  he  is  bound  into  a 

certain  oneness  of  the  Spirit  belonging  to  all 

mankind.     Such  is  the  infinite  variety  in  unity 

of  the  religious  consciousness  of  man. 

And  what  is  writ  small  in  each  man's  soul  \ 
is  writ  large  in  the  history  of  the  race.  There  \ 
is  no  form  or  branch  of  man's  racial  develop- 
ment which  has  gone  on,  or  which  can  go  on,  in 
a  complete  separateness  from  the  development 
of  religion.  Between  religion  and  every  form 
of  race-culture — industry,  commerce,  politics, 
education,  science,  philosophy,  morals,  and  art 
— ^there  is  always  an  interchange  of  influences. 


124    The  Child  and  Religion 

The  history  of  man's  racial  experience  in  the 
past  confirms  the  conclusions  derived  from  a 
study  of  the  relations  existing  between  the 
different  forms  and  phases  of  his  complex 
nature. 

These  conclusions,  which  are  established  by 
the  psychological  and  historical  study  of  re- 
ligion, form  fitting  assumptions  with  which  to 
approach  the  theme  of  this  chapter.  In  a\ 
word,  the  child's  capacity  for  religion  is  one  i 
important  and  complex  phase  of  its  being  | 
human  ;  as  a  "  child  of  man "  it  is  naturally 
and  normally,  in  manifold  and  subtle  ways, 
not  only  capable  of  being  religious,  but  bound 
to  be  religious.  Its  destiny  is  then  one  of 
more  or  less,  of  good  or  bad,  of  symmetry  or 
distortion  ;  it  is  not  one  that  admits  of  a 
cultivated  power  to  transcend  the  limits  of  its 
species,  whether  by  rising  to  superhuman 
heights  or  by  sinking  to  bestial  depths.  To 
anticipate  a  practical  suggestion :  the  would- 
be  religious  teacher  or  helper,  whether  it  be 
of  the  human  child  or  of  the   human   adult. 


Capacity  for  Religion        125 

should  always  rest  in  the  confidence  that  he 
is  dealing  with  this  latent,  if  not  as  yet 
developed,  capacity. 

In  our  analysis  of  the  complex  capacity  of 
the  child  for  the  experiences  of  religion,  if  we 
begin  where  the  elements  are  most  evasive 
and  obscure  but  are  lowest  in  the  intellectual 
scale,  we  may  speak  of  the  impulsive  and 
emotional  sources  of  religion.  These  are 
relatively  significant  and  powerful  in  the  life 
of  the  child,  as  they  are  in  the  childhood  of 
the  race.  But  they  continue  to  exist  and  to 
exert  no  small  influence  even  over  the  con- 
scious religious  life  of  the  most  cultured  adult. 
In  religion,  as  in  all  forms  of  his  experience,  I 
man  believes  but  knows  not  why  he  believes. 
He  feels,  but  often  he  is  almost  powerless  to 
tell  whether  his  feeling  is  rational  or  is,  in 
its  direction,  true  to  a  desirable  end.  He 
is  obliged  to  act,  where  the  justification  in 
reason,  and  the  significance  and  larger  final 
purpose  of  his  action,  are  almost  or  quite 
completely   hidden   frorn  his    view.     And    if 


r 


126    The  Child  and  Religion 

this  is  true  of  the  cultured  adult,  and  of  the 
adult  man  in  the  childhood  of  the  race,  it  is  a 
fortiori  true  of  the  child  in  all  conditions  and 
stages  of  race-culture. 

It  is  now  quite  generally  recognised  that 
the  instinct  or  impulse  to  "self-preservation" 
contributes  an  important  influence  in  the 
excitement  of  the  religious  consciousness. 
The  term  itself  expresses  a  group  of  subtle 
and  forceful  psychical  reactions  which  impel 
the  soul  toward  the  belief  and  practice 
of  religion.  Even  with  the  most  meagre 
and  childish  conception  of  the  interest  which 
it  is  desirable  to  conserve,  the  human  being 
soon  discovers  that  much  of  good  and  evil 
is  most  mysterious  in  its  source  and  quite 
beyond  his  own  either  direct  or  indirect 
control.  Hence  arises  the  desire  to  '*  square 
himself"  (a  phrase  I  borrow  from  Professor 
Hopkins)  with  those  invisible  powers  on  whose 
action  his  weal  or  woe  seems  to  depend.  And 
as  the  conception  of  the  interests  to  be  con- 
served enlarges,  and  the  "  Self"  to  be  defended 


Capacity  for  Religion        127 

against  evil  and  to  be  made  secure  of  the 
good  becomes  more  comprehensive,  the  desire 
to  be  enhghtened,  purified,  and  saved  from 
moral  evil,  grows  to  be  a  powerful  and  rational 
excitement  to  the  religious  life. 

Closely  connected  with  its  impulses  to  self- 
preservation  are  the  restlessness  and  dissatis-^*^ 
faction  of  the  human  child  with  all  present 
conditions  of  being.  The  "  hunger "  which 
gives  impulse  to  economic  and  artistic  better- 
ment has  its  counterpart  in  the  religious  life. 
As  von  Humboldt  well  said  :  "  All  religion 
rests  on  a  need  of  the  soul ;  we  hope,  we  dread, 
because  we  wish."  The  ceaseless  craving  for 
satisfaction  is  an  important  part  of  the  human 
being's  capacity  for  religion.  To  try  to  satisfy 
fully  this  craving,  without  resort  to  the  senti- 
ments and  ideas  of  religion,  is  a  vain  and 
injurious  procedure.  In  its  highest  form  it 
becomes  the  longing  for  purity  and  peace.  It 
is  to  this  that  Jesus  and  Buddha  both  made 
such  powerful  appeals.  And  it  is  the  attempt 
of  the  present  age  to  satisfy  the  deepest  needs 


y 


128     The  Child  and   ReHgion 

of  human  nature  by  a  more  abundant  supply 
of  physical  comforts  and  of  sensuous  pleasures, 
which  constitutes  and  validates  some  of  the 
most  effective  influences  for  thwarting  the 
chief  benefits  of  the  religious  life. 

"  The  heart,"  said  Novalis,  "  is  the  organ  of 
religion."  And  without  doubt  it  is  in  forms 
of  feeling  that  many  of  the  more  primitive  and 
effective  capacities  of  the  child  for  religion 
consist.  Among  these  forms  it  has  for  a  long 
time  been  customary  to  speak  of  fear  as  the 
chief,  or  the  only  source,  of  primitive  religious 
consciousness.  "  Fear  first  made  the  gods," 
said  Petronius, — thus  uttering  a  statement 
which  is,  for  savage  or  primitive  men,  largely 
but  by  no  means  wholly  true. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  older  forms 
of  orthodox  religion,  and  of  the  accompanying 
ecclesiastical  training,  overwrought  upon   this 
capacity   of  the   child,   to    the    marring    ancfe 
degrading  of  its  religious  experience. 

A  more  sympathetic  study  of  comparative 
religion  shows  that,  even  in  the  lowest  forms. 


Capacity  for  Religion       129 

a  sort  of  social  feeling  which  is  a  mixture  of 
drawings  of  affection  and  desire  for  good- 
fellowship  mingles  with  fear  or  veneration  in 
the  worship  of  the  gods.  Not  to  recognise 
the  more  than  merely  animal  capacity  of  the 
child  for  fear  would  be  to  neglect  to  use  one 
of  the  most  natural  and  proper  avenues  to  the 
soul.  But  not  to  accompany  the  appeal  to 
this  capacity  with  the  appeals  to  the  afFectional 
and  friendly  impulses,  and  thus  to  moderate  it 
"and  make  it  more  rational,  is,  perhaps,  the 
most  dangerous  of  all  mistakes  in  dealing  with 
the  religious  nature  of  the  child. 

It  was  a  wise  saying  of  Spinoza :  "  There  is  -c^ 
no  hope  without  fear,  and  no  fear  without 
hope."  The  Invisible  Power  with  which  the 
imagination  of  man  environs  him  may  be 
conceived  of  as  kindly  and  good ;  and,  by 
rising  to  the  sublimest  heights  of  religious 
faith,  it  may  be  known  in  experience  as 
Redeeming  Love.  The  capacity  for  hope, 
which  is  almost  deathless  in  the  human  soul, 

— for   he  who   has  lost  all  and  every  manner 

9 


130     The  Child  and  Religion 

of  hope  is  indeed  already  a  lost  man, — is  ac- 
cordingly to  be  reckoned  with  as  a  part  of  the 
child's  capacity  for  religion. 

As  the  imagination  is  led  on  to  construct 
the  conception  of  a  superhuman  majesty  and 
power  and  goodness  in  the  gods,  or  in  the 
Alone  God,  the  emotional  characteristics  of 
religious  experience  take  their  colouring  from 
the  more  distinctively  ethical  feelings  of 
admiration,  dependence,  humility,  and  resig- 
nation. Of  these  four  the  former  two  may  be 
appealed  to  relatively  early  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  child's  mental  life.  But  genuine 
humility  and  unfeigned  resignation  are  the 
accomplishments  of  the  most  cultured  adult 
religious  manhood. 

When  the  "will-to-live"  of  the  individual 
man,  which  expresses  itself  in  all  these  more 
self-assertive  forms  of  emotion  and  impulse, 
becomes  chastened  by  meeting  in  collision 
with  other  wills,  and  when  the  mind  becomes 
conscious  of  that  one  supreme  and  all-powerful 
Will  which  no  finite  powers  can  overrule  or 


Capacity  for  Religion        131 

successfully  resist,  the  altruistic  feelings  of  a 
social  kind  and  the  more  egoistic  feelings  of 
fear,  hope,  and  self-preservation,  combine  to 
form  bonds  of  attachment  between  the  human 
being  and  God.  In  the  childhood  of  the  race 
these  feelings  are  called  forth  in  a  special 
way  by  ancestor- worship  and  by  the  worship 
of  domestic  and  tribal  gods.  They  express 
themselves  in  such  institutions  as  the  com- 
munal feast,  and  the  sacrifice  which  has  the 
meaning  of  a  friendly  gift.  But  ethical  love 
as  a  source  of  religion  is  a  rare  merit,  and 
belongs  almost  exclusively  to  Judaism  and  to 
Christianity.  Nor  does  the  history  of  man's 
religious  development  show,  as  some  have 
claimed,  that  such  love  arises  out  of  the  sexual 
emotions.  On  the  contrary,  the  ethical  love 
of  God  is  a  development  of  those  domestic 
and  tribal  affections  which  are  more  remote 
from  the  suspicion  of  taint  from  sexual 
feeling.  It  was  the  fatherly  pity  and  tender- 
ness of  the  majestic  and  holy  Jehovah  which 
begat  the  answering  love  of  Divine  Being  in 


132    The  Child  and  Religion 

the  breast  of  the  pious  Jew.  We  love  Him 
because  He  first  loved  us,  with  the  love  which 
shows  its  supreme  manifestation  in  Redemp- 
tion,— it  is  thus  that  the  capacity  for  ethical 
affection  toward  God  is  opened  up  by 
Christianity.  Now  all  this  is  favourable,  in 
the  family  circle,  and  under  the  symbol  and 
relations  of  the  life  of  the  family,  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  child's  natural  capacity  for 
this  species  of  the  Divine  love.  The  child  is 
a  social  being  ;  and  through  the  love  of  the 
father  and  mother  whom  it  has  seen,  the 
capacity  may  be  developed  for  the  love  of  the 
Father  whom  it  has  not  seen. 

All  these,  and  all  other  merely  impulsive 
and  emotional  capacities  on  the  part  of  the 
child  would  not,  however,  furnish  an  object  of 
religious  faith  or  knowledge.  At  most  they 
could  only  result  in  vague,  impotent  longings 
for  some  unknown  end.  It  is,  therefore,  be- 
cause the  child  is  capable  of  developing  a 
certain  rationality  of  nature  that  we  can  speak 
of  its  capacity  for  religion  in  the  fullest  mean- 


Capacity  for  Religion        133 

ing  of  the  word.  I  am  using  the  term 
"rationahty"  with  a  very  vague  and  general 
significance.  But  since  the  essence  of  reUgion 
includes  the  belief  in  superhuman,  invisible 
power,  working  after  the  analogy — at  least  to 
some  extent — of  the  human  spirit,  we  may  fitly 
claim  that  the  imagination  and  intellect  must 
have  the  capacity  of  framing  the  conception  of 
such  a  power ;  otherwise  there  can  be  no 
real  development  of  the  life  of  religion. 
.     The     active,     planful     imagination     which 

'  develops  so  early  in  the  child  is  an  important 
factor  in  its  capacity  for  religion.  Indeed, 
unless  the  image-making  faculty  in  man  could 

!  quite  outstrip  its  analogous  activities  in  the 
consciousness  of  the  lowest  animals,  religion, 
so  far  as  the  construction  of  its  object  is 
concerned,  would  be  quite  impossible.  With 
the  savage  or  primitive  man,  as  with  the  child, 

/  every  vivid  and  persistent  experience,  especially 
if  it  becomes  somewhat  intimately  connected 
with  the  emotions  and  practical   interests,   is 

,  prima  facie  taken  as   representing   some   real 


134    The  Child  and   Religion 

being  or  actual  event.  It  is  further  experi- 
ence, and  the  development  of  that  kind  of 
knowledge  which  we  call  science,  that  forces 
the  distinction  between  what  is  merely  imagin- 
ative and  what  is  imaged  upon  a  sound  basis 
of  real  beings  and  actual  events.  All  the 
effort  of  the  intellect  in  the  framing  of  the 
conceptions  of  religious  experience  is  directed 
toward  making  them  ideally  worthy  and  at 
the  same  time  defensible  as  rational  and  true. 
And  by  ti^ue  in  this  connection  we  meaja, 
having  some  correlate  in  reality.  The  process 
of  purifying  and  rectifying  the  earlier  products 
of  imagination  and  thought  is  as  necessary  to 
the  life  and  development  of  religion  as  it  is  to 
any  other  of  the  more  serious  and  profound 
aspects  of  man's  complex  experience.  In  the 
childhood  of  the  race  the  Divine  Spirit 
quickens  and  stirs  up  the  latent  capacities 
of  imagination  and  intellect  to  construct,  in 
childish  fashion,  the  conception  of  the  Object 
of  religious  faith  and  worship.  In  the  same 
way   the   skilful   teacher   of  the   child   avails 


Capacity  for  Religion       135 

himself  of  its  natural  capacities  of  imagination 
and    intellect   in   the   field   of  religion.      To\ 
attempt  to  order  out  or  to  suppress  imagination/ 
would  be  as  vain  as  it  would  be  foolish.     To  \ 
purify  and  rectify   its  products,  and  to   train    | 
it  progressively  towards  the  capacity  for  raising 
the  conceptions  and  faiths  of  religion  toward    \ 
higher  and   truer   ideals,   is   the   natural   and    | 
fortunate  way  of  availing  one's  self  of  its  help-  / 
ful  activity. 

^  In   this   connection   we   may  fitly    remind\ 
ourselves   that   the   necessity   for    cultivating  \ 
imagination    is   as  essential   and  as   great  in  1 
the  development  of  science  or  art  as  it  is  in/ 
the  development  of  religion.       Without   the 
creative   imagination,   operating   in   a  planful 
way,  there  would  be  neither  science,  nor  art, 
nor  religion.     And   in  religion   as   in  art   or 
science,  the  test  which  determines  whether  the 
imagination  rings  true  to  the  tone  struck  out  of 
it  by  the  unseen  hand  of  Reality,  whether  the 
imagining  is  vain  and  misleading,  or  rational 
and  helpful,  is  the  growing  experience  of  the     ' 


136    The  Child  and  Religion 

race.     This  growth  is,   for   the   individual   as 
well  as  for  the  race,  for  the  child  as  well  as  the 
adult,  the  work  of  the  Divine  Spirit  shaping  in 
the  soul  of  man  the  Idea  of  its  own  Real  Self 
In  religious  terms,  it  is  God  revealing  Himself 
as  God,  according  to  the  God-given  capacity 
of  man  to  receive  the  revelation. 
r      In   religion  as  in  all  other  forms  of  man's 
j    complex  development,  thinking  does  not  take 
\  the   initiative.      Yet   intellectual   curiosity    is 
/  natural   to   man   and   works    in  the  spirit   of 
1  the  child   as    well   as   of  the   savage   or   un- 
^  cultured  adult.     The  Whence  and  Why,  and 
What-for    of    things,   man    desires   to   know 
— especially,     but     not    solely,    when     these 
things  are  intimately  related  to  his  own   ex- 
\    periences  of  pleasure  and  pain.     Therefore,  the 
I  religious  view  has  always  figured  prominently 
\  as  an  explanation  of  the   origin,   the  course, 
\  and  the  destiny  of  that  complex  of  things  and 
I  souls  which  makes  the  World. 
y       It  is,  of  course,   impossible   to   satisfy  the 
intellectual  curiosity  of  the  child,  or  to  afford 


Capacity  for  Religion        137 

a  permanent  support  to  the  growth  of  its 
religious  experience,  by  referring  to  the  Divine 
Being,  in  the  gross  as  it  were,  as  the  maker  of 
things  and  the  giver  of  the  human  soul.  But  I 
it  is  equally  impossible  to  satisfy  its  religious 
nature,  or  to  develop  symmetrically  its  capacity 
for  religion  on  the  intellectual  side,  while 
leaving  God  entirely  out  of  that  account  which 
modern  science  offers  of  the  constitution  aiidL 
development  of  ''  Nature  "  so-called.  Nothing 
is  more  foreboding  for  both  science  and  religion 
than  the  current  attempt  to  ascribe  to  the 
two  forms  of  thinking  and  knowing  quite  defi- 
nitely limited  and  mutually  exclusive  spheres. 
While  faith  and  feeling,  and  the  influence  of 
human  ideals,  cannot  be  ruled  out  of  the 
scientific  explanation  of  the  whole  realm  of 
experience,  the  conception  of  order,  law,  causa- 
tion, and  the  other  satisfactions  of  man's 
scientific  nature,  are  integral  and  indestructible 
parts  of  his  capacity  for  religion.  So  that 
even  if  the  old-fashioned  conception  of  nature 
and  the  supernatural,  as  holding  for  exclusive 


138     The  Child  and  Religion 

spheres   of  phenomena,  were  definitively  dis- 
proved,    and     the     former     claims     for     the 
miraculous    were   forever  abandoned,  religion 
could   never  be   wholly   resolved   into   vague 
/  feeling   or   irrational   faith.      Religion  always 
\    has  been,  and   it   is   essentially,    a   theory   of 
\  reality. 

This  capacity  of  the  child  for  understanding 

/  the   causes   and  orderly  connections  and  final 

I    purposes  of  the  phenomena  should  be  trusted 

I    and   cultivated   in   the   interests   of    religious 

^^  development.       To     teach     him     that    what 

science   properly   refers  to   as   natural    forces 

and   laws   are   also    quite   as  properly  looked 

upon   as   expressions  of  the  will  and  wisdom 

and   love   of  the    Infinite    God   is   to  appeal, 

in   a  way  to  afford  the  prospect  of  the  most 

lasting  satisfactions,  to  his  intellectual  capacity 

for  taking  the  religious  point  of  view.     And 

if  this  appeal   is   made  with  the  use  of  that 

symbolism  and  illustration  which  adapt  it  to 

the   childish   stage   of  intellect,   it  favours   a 

return  on  the  part  of  the  individual  of  to-day 


Capacity  for  Religion        139 

to   the   sublime  truth,   so   largely  latent  and 

perverted   indeed,  which  was  of  old  revealed 

to  the  reflection  of  the  race.     In  every  event 

of  the   child's  life,  in   every   pulsation  of  its 

body,   and   every    stirring   of    its   mind,    the 

immanent  presence  of  the  Omnipresent  One 

may  come  to  be  recognised.     And  when  this 

presence  is  not  only  felt  and  recognised,  but 

is   also   persuasive  and  potent  for  the  purify- 

I. 
ing  and  uplifting  of  the  child's  conduct  and\ 

entire   spiritual   being,  religion  is  accomplish-*! 

ing  its   peculiar   and    most    profitable    work^ 

fThis  work  is  the  production  of  that  attitude\ 
toward  God  which  is  the  spirit  of  filial  piety, ) 
and   which   is   called   "  faith " ;    and   the  per- 
fection of  which  is  the  redemption  of  human 
souls,  and  of  society,  as  a  community  of  sons 

liofGod. 

It  is,  however,  the  capacity  of  the  child 
for  ethical  and  assthetical  sentiments  and 
ideals,  to  which  the  higher  forms  of  religion 
chiefly  appeal.  In  the  lower  and  more 
primitive  forms   of  religion    the    feelings    of 


140    The  Child  and  Religion 

obligation  toward  the  gods  take  the  negative 
form  of  tabu.  Certain  things  are  forbidden 
under  commands  that  do  not  seem  to  have 
a  human  origin,  and  that  are  enforced  by 
penalties  which  emanate  from  a  mysterious 
and  invisible  source.  On  the  more  positive 
side,  religion  expresses  this  feeling  in  the 
form  of  gifts,  prayers,  sacraments,  and  rites. 
When,  then,  the  child  is  made  to  believe  that 
'  God  not  only  regards  its  behaviour  from  the 
point  of  view  of  its  moral  value,  but  searches 
its  heart  with  an  inescapable  wisdom  as  to  its 
motives,  purposes,  and  most  hidden  thoughts, 
its  capacity  for  religion  is  appealed  to  in  a 
most  forceful  and  important  way. 

In  my  judgment,  this  appeal  cannot  be 
made  with  the  utmost  possible  effectiveness, 
so  long  as  pleasure  or  happiness  is  made  the 
measure  of  the  perfection  and  the  desirable- 
ness of  the  moral  Ideal.  The  present  age  is 
sadly  in  need  of  some  more  lofty  and  stimulat- 
ing conception  of  the  inherent  nature  and 
obligations    of    a    life    of    righteousness    and 


Capacity  for  Religion        141 

holiness  than  any  which  the  current  hedonistic 
ethics  can  possibly  afford.  Instead  of  the 
capacity  for  happiness,  whether  in  the  indi- 
vidual or  in  the  multitude,  being  the  measure 
of  the  obligation  to  develop  the  capacity  for 
righteousness  and  holiness,  the  former  seems 
at  the  present  time  largely  to  have  submerged, 
if  not  to  have  injured  or  destroyed  the  other. 

ffBut  I  have  confidence  enough  in  the  per- 
manency and  power  of  man's  longing  for 
spiritual  purity  and  for  the  peace  of  reconcile- 
ment with   God   and   of  resignation   to    His 

'iWill,   to   believe   that   a   more   vigorous  and 

'  successful  life  of  devotion  to  moral  ideals, 
at  whatever  cost  of  suffering,  is  well  within 
the  limits  of  human  nature  when  touched 
and   inspired   by  that  Spirit  which  we,  alas ! 

V  so  thoughtlessly  call  Holy.  Every  normal  | 
human  child  responds  to  the  appeal  to  strive 
after  some  preferred  form  of  conduct.  In 
general,  at  least,  a  part  of  the  child's  capacity 
for  religion  is  its  power  to  look  into  the 
invisible   and   unknown    for    a    law    and    an 


^ 


142     The  Child  and  Religion 

I    ideal,  that  is  higher  and  better  than  anything 
\  which  it  finds  in  its  environment  of  fact. 

Von  Hartmann  agrees  with  Kant,  as  indeed 
all  careful  psychological  analysis  must,  in 
holding  that  "the  feeling  of  the  subUme," 
which  is  the  most  important  among  the 
aesthetical  sentiments,  is  a  source  and  explana- 
tion of  religious  experience.  The  capacity 
-  for  appreciating  the  sublime,  the  admirable, 
/  the  unspeakably  majestic,  is  one  of  the  most 
\  potent  factors  in  the  child's  capacity  for 
reUgion.  "  I  call  that  sublime,"  says  Kant, 
"which  is  absolutely  great."  "The  sublime 
is  that,  the  mere  ability  to  think  which  shows 
a  faculty  of  mind  surpassing  every  standard 
of  sense."  Yet  this  faculty  is  human  ;  and  it 
lies  latent  in  the  soul  of  every  normal  human 
child. 

The  mystery  and  awfulness  which  shroud 
all  our  human  conceptions  of  God,  when 
softened  and  sweetened  with  confidence  in  His 
redeeming  love,  are  wonderfully  attractive  to 
the  mind  of  man.     It  is  chiefly  this  aspect  of 


i 


Capacity  for  Religion        143 

religion  to  which  religious  Mysticism  makes 
its  appeal :  and  any  form  of  religious  doctrine  ) 
or  life  which  entirely  eliminates  the  mystical,  ! 
fails  of  fully  satisfying  the  religious  capacity 
of  man.  How^  fond  the  multitude  is  of  dis- 
playing an  excessive,  an  almost  unlimited 
admiration  for  its  hero,  for  the  time  being  1 
Yet  how  absolutely  unworthy  of  any  such 
sentiment  that  hero  really  is !  But  this  very 
foolish  excess  shows  the  marvellous  capacity 
for  adoring  the  really  admirable  which  the 
human  soul  possesses.  It  is  the  Object  of 
religious  faith  which  is  alone  worthy  of  such 
sentiments. 

All  those  so-called  "  capacities "  of  the\ 
child  for  religion  are  in  a  way  subsidiary  to  \  M^ 
its  capacity  of  choosing  God  as  the  Ruler 
and  Redeemer  of  the  spiritual  life.  If  the 
child  could  only  feel  and  think  about  God, 
if  its  mental  exercises  ended  in  the  formation 
of  a  more  or  less  satisfying  Ideal,  its  religious 
condition  would  be  sad  indeed.  To  crave 
that  which  we  can  in  no  measure,  and  at  no 


144    The  Child  and  Religion 

time,  obtain  and  to  long  for  that  upon  which 
the  will  is  powerless  to  fix  itself,  and  by 
which  it  can  in  no  respect  fashion  conduct, 
is  to  prepare  one's  self  for  melancholy  and 
a  melancholic  failure,  and  for  the  doom  of 
final  despair.  But  the  human  being,  although 
in  a  limited  and  imperfect  way,  has  the 
V  capacity  of  choosing  God.  It  is  in  the  exercise 
of  this  capacity  that  the  life  of  religion 
culminates.  Primarily  considered,  it  is  the 
voluntary  taking  of  that  filial  attitude  toward 
the  Divine  Will  which  is  the  essence  of  piety 
and  the  beginning  of  the  life  of  the  child  of 
God.  It  is  also,  considered  as  a  development, 
the  progressive  following  of  the  path  of  life, 
conceived  of  as  marked  out  for  the  individual 
by  the  same  Will  of  God. 

It  is  at  this  point  especially  that  the  capacity 

of  the  child  comes  into  its  closest   and  most 

effective  relation  with  the  work  of  Jesus,  the 

J  Christ.     In  the  religious,  as  in  all  other  forms 

j  of  the  practical  life  of  the  child,  the  influence 

\  of  example  is  most  potent,  is  ever  apt  to  be 


Capacity  for  Religion       145 

supreme.  The  child  is  not,  indeed,  capable  of 
comprehending  the  mystical  relations  in  which 
the  dogmas  of  Christianity  teach  that  Jesus 
stands  to  God ;  neither  can  he  entertain  the 
conceptions  in  debate  between  those  who  hold 
to  the  double,  and  those  who  affirm  the  single 
nature  of  the  "  Son  of  Man."  But  the  child  is 
capable  of  appreciating,  in  a  childlike  but  in 
a  substantially  true  and  exceedingly  effective 
way,  the  beauty  and  the  moral  value  of  the 
kind  of  life  which  Jesus  led.  By  an  act  of 
will,  it  is  capable  of  choosing  to  follow  Jesus, 
and  to  be  a  son  of  God  after  the  pattern  of 
him  who  is,  in  a  special  and  unique  way,  God's 
Son.  To  express  this  capacity  in  terms  that 
have  their  origin  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  and 
the  Apostles,  the  child  is  capable  of  con- 
version, resignation,  and  edification  in  the 
religious  life,  after  the  rule,  and  in  the  spirit, 
of  Christ. 

Two  or  three  observations  may  fitly  bring  J 

to   an  end  this  very  imperfect  survey  of  the  ^"j^r 

child's  capacity  for  religion.     Briefly  described, 

10 


146     The  Child  and  Religion 

its  capacity  is  that  of  forming  an  image  of 
the  Divine  Being,  and  of  taking  toward  this 
image,  regarded  as  representative  of  ReaHty, 
a  fitting  attitude  of  intellect,  feeling,  and  will. 
Undoubtedly  it  is  true  that  the  human  child 
makes  God  in  its  own  image.  Agnosticism 
and  unbelief  have  always  brought  against 
this  procedure,  whether  in  the  case  of  the 
individual  child  or  of  the  adult,  of  the  child- 
hood or  of  the  relative  maturity  of  the  race, 
the  charge  of  being  invalid  and  even  deceptive. 
But  the  religious  tenet  reverses  the  statement 
which  we  have  made  from  the  psychological 
point  of  view,  and  affirms  that  God  makes  the 
human  child  or  adult  in  His  own — i.e.  in  God's 
image.  Thus  the  writer  of  Genesis  i.  26  f. 
represents  Elohim  as  saying  :  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness ; "  and 
then  asserts :  "  So  Elohim  created  man  in  his 
own  image,  in  the  image  of  Elohim  created  he 
him." 

The  teacher  of  religion,  and  especially  the 
beUever  in  the  central  tenets  of  Christianity, 


Capacity  for  Religion       147 

can  never  for  a  moment  admit  that  the  con- 
tention of  Agnosticism,   true  as  many  of  its 
alleged   facts    undoubtedly   are,   is  justifiable 
either  as  pure  theory  or  as  controlling  practice.  ^ 
Certainly  the  capacity  of  the  child  for  religion  | 
is  limited  by  its  own  nature ;  and  the  God  in  \ 
whom  it  believes  and  whom  it  worships  and  j 
obeys,  must  ever  be   imaged   and   known   in; 
terms  of  its  own  faculties.     But  this  making 
of  the  image  of  God  by  the  child  after  the 
pattern  of  its  own  image  is  considered  from 
the  other  point  of  view,  God's  making,  by  a 
course  of  progressive   evolution,  of  the  child 
into  the  Divine  image.     And  the  denial  of  the 
possibility  of  this,  and   of  the  obtaining  of  a 
true   knowledge   of  God   in  this  way,   when 
carried  out  to  its  logical  result,  issues  in  the 
denial  of  the  possibility  for  man  of  any  species 
of  truth,   such   as   will   seem   to  put  science 
or     society     upon     assured     foundations     of 
knowledge. 

It  follows,  then,  that   to  leave  wholly  un- 
touched  or    relatively   undeveloped   any   one 


148     The  Child  and  Religion 

side   or   aspect   of  this  manifold  capacity  for| 
;^     religion   on   the  part   of  the  child  is  to  limit  j 
\  or  disturb  the  balance  of  its  religious  develop- ! 
,  ment.     But,  on   the   other  hand,  the  natural 
/  development    of    the   child's   mind   follows   a  \ 
y  certain   psychological   order.      The   impulsive 
and  instinctive  sources  of  religious  experience 
are  earliest  in  their  effective  operation,  and  are 
most  influential  in  the  first  stage  of  religious 
%,  development.     Fear,  hope,  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,     the    restlessness    of    a     vague 
intellectual     curiosity,    and    the     feeling     of 
dependence,    constitute     the     more    primary 
factors    in   the    child-life   to   which   religious 
instruction   may   address   itself.     But   as   the 
1  .  period   of  more   rapidly   advancing    maturity 
approaches,    the    more    definitely    intelligent 
activities,  and  the  power  of  generalisation  and 
of  the   constitution  of  ethical  and  aesthetical 
ideals,    come    more    prominently    into    play. 
For  that  complex  of  aptitudes  and  activities 
which    we     denominate     the    "  capacity    for  I 
religion  "  stands  as  much  in  need  of  symmetrical] 


Capacity  for  Religion        149 

development  as  does  the  political,  or  the  social, 
or  the  scientific,  capacity  of  man. 

The  child's  capacity  for  religion,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  an  exceedingly  variable  affair, 
with  many  degrees  of  quantity ;  and  with  an 
indefinite  manifoldness  of  exercise  and  of 
development.  Every  child  is  potentially 
religious,  but  every  child  is  sure  to  be  a 
religious  development  of  a  species  somewhat 
peculiarly  its  own.  There  are  born  realists, 
idealists,  and  mystics,  in  religion  as  in 
philosophy.  There  are  children  in  whom 
feeling  naturally  predominates  over  thought 
and  the  practical  life ;  there  are  others  who 
run  a  career  more  governed  by  calculation  or 
by  the  tests  of  scientific  knowledge  ;  and  there 
are  those  in  whom  the  interests  of  a  most 
practical  character  seem  to  leave  little  room 
for  the  sentiment  or  constructive  thinking 
which  are  required  by  the  ideals  of  either 
morality,  art,  or  religion.  There  is  also  a 
somewhat  fundamental  and  irremovable 
difference  between  the  religious  capacities  and 


150    The  Child  and  Religion 

experiences  of  the  two  sexes ;  and  among  the 
various  ages  and  stages  of  human  development. 
Tribal  and  racial  differences  appear,  although 
in  a  somewhat  vague  and  baffling  way,  as  we 
study  the  subject  from  the  points  of  view  of 
ethnology  and  comparative  psychology.  In- 
deed, the  capacity  for  religion  is  a  function  of 
race-culture ;  and  race-culture  is  itself  pro- 
foundly modified  by  the  degree  and  kind  of 
religious  development  which,  at  any  particular  | 
time,  enter  into  it.  What  is  true  of  mankind! 
in  general  is  true  of  every  individual  child.  j 
The  recent  psychological  investigations  of 
religious  experience  have  made  much  of  the 
"  subliminal,"  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other  hand  of  the  vague  but  potent 
stirrings  of  a  sexual  sort,  as  they  become 
influential  in  the  conscious  life  at  the  period 
of  adolescence.  In  my  judgment  both  these 
considerations,  important  as  they  are,  have 
been  relatively  overworked.  Undoubtedly, 
in  religion,  as  in  every  other  form  of  human 
life    and    human    development,    the    factors 


Capacity  for  Religion       151 

of  influence  which  enter  somewhat  definitely 
into    the    field     of    consciousness    constitute 
only  a  part   of  those  which   are  most   force- 
ful  and  determining.     But  after   all,  religion  j 
is  always  and   essentially  a   personal  matter ;  ^ 
and   it   can  reach  the  fulness  of  its  mission, 
and    express    its     total     nature,    only    when 
it    exists    as    an    attitude,    adopted    with    a 
feeling     of    conviction,    on    the    part     of    a 
finite   Self    toward    that   other    and   all-com- 
prehending Self.     The   religious  education  of 
the    child    can,    then,   no   more    be    satisfied 
without  raising  the   appropriate  ideals  above 
I  the  threshold   of  consciousness,   and   making 
jthem  definite   objects  of  appreciation  and  of 
Ithe    practical    grasp   of    will,   than    can   any 
other   form   of  education.     To   educate  is  to 
; direct  the    conscious    activities    of    reflection 
I  and   choice   upon   what  would   otherwise   re- 
main   in    the    vagueness    and    mist    of    the 
"  subliminal."    God  is  doubtless  there — behind 
the  veil ;  yes,  in  the  veil.     But  the  appeal  to 
the  religious  capacity  is  designed  to  help  the 


1 


152     The  Child  and  Religion 

mind   to  see  through   the  veil,  if  not  wholly 
to  put  it  aside. 

As  to  the  various  exaggerations  of  the 
/  •  influence  of  the  child's  sexual  nature  and 
sexual  development  upon  its  capacity  for  re- 
ligion, I  can  scarcely  bring  myself  to  speak 
in  so  moderate  terms.  That  the  worship  of 
the  divine  power  of  life,  and  of  its  symbols 
and  operations,  sexual  and  otherwise,  has 
played  a  great  part  in  the  religious  develop- 
ment of  mankind,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
But,  as  I  have  already  said,  it  is  the  other 
social  feelings  and  social  relations  out  of 
which  the  ethical  love  and  pure  service  of 
God  have  come  in  the  past,  and  must  always 
come  in  the  future.  It  is  to  the  child's  capa- 
city for  these  that  religious  education  makes 
its  most  confident  appeal. 

And,  finally,  the  child's  capacity  for  re- 
ligion, is,  in  general,  very  largely  a  social 
matter.  It  is  as  members  of  the  human  race 
and  not  as  solitary  reflecting  minds  that  men 
are   religious.     It   is   as  membeif  of  a  social 


Capacity  for  Religion        153 

community  which  has  a  reUgious,  as  well  as 
a  purely  commercial  or  political  significance, 
that  the  child  receives  and  develops  its  capa- 
city for  religion.  And  here  is  where  the 
Church  or  social  religious  organisation  has 
its  mission  to  make  a  wise  and  confident 
appeal  to  this  capacity.  The  final  realisa- 
tion of  the  development  which  the  capacity 
implies  is  the  perfected  Kingdom  of  God. 

GEORGE  TRUMBULL  LADD. 
New  Haven^  Connecticut,  U.S.A. 


IV 

THE  CHILD  AND  SIN 

The  child  furnishes  the  only  actual  type  of 
innocence.  With  its  personality  incompletely 
formed,  its  experience  narrowly  circumscribed, 
and  its  intellect  undeveloped,  it  is  necessarily 
prevented  from  temptation  to  many  of  the 
forms  of  wrong-doing  or  wrong-thinking  which 
so  easily  beset  maturer  age.  The  relative 
ignorance  of  evil,  the  consequent  trustfulness 
and  absence  of  suspicion,  the  receptiveness  and 
docility,  the  simplicity  and  sincerity  which 
belong  to  childhood  in  an  especial  degree, 
enable  us  to  refer  to  the  child  as  in  some 
particulars  the  standard  of  perfection  to  which 
manhood  must  strive  to  attain.  "  Of  such  is 
the    kingdom   of    heaven";    "Unless    ye    be 

154 


i 


The  Child  and  Sin  155 

converted,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye 
shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

Of  course,  these  words  of  Jesus  Christ  can- 
not be  so  interpreted  as  to  imply  that  childhood 
is  morally  perfect,  in  any  sense  of  the  word 
"perfect."  Some  men,  however,  have  been 
led  to  attribute  to  the  child,  or  rather  to  the 
infant,  a  unique  moral  excellence.  Rousseau, 
for  example,  regarded  children  as  coming 
perfect  from  their  Creator's  hand.  And  we 
are  familiar  with  Wordsworth's  lines  : 

Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting : 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 

Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 
And  Cometh  from  afar. 

Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 

And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  traiHng  clouds  of  glory,  do  we  come 

From  God,  who  is  our  home  : 
Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy ! 

On  the  other  hand,  the  child  nature  is 
always  characterised  by  what,  in  older  persons, 
would  be  described  as  faults  and  vices.  Young 
children  are  invariably  very  impatient  of  godly 


156    The  Child  and  Religion 

restraint  and  discipline ;  they  exhibit  a  pas- 
sionateness  of  temper,  a  wilfulness,  a  greed, 
an  unconscious  cruelty,  and  a  capacity  for 
unrestrained  self  -  pleasing,  which  serve  to 
convince  the  majority  of  minds  that  there  is 
indeed  much  of  the  old  Adam  in  human 
nature  from  the  first.  "  Can  you  possibly 
doubt  the  doctrine  of  original  sin,"  the  present 
writer  was  once  asked  by  a  mother,  and  again 
by  a  theologian  with  experience  of  Sunday 
Schools,  ''  if  you  have  ever  had  anything  to 
do  with  children  ? " 

That  every  infant  inherits  a  vitiated  or 
corrupted  nature,  which  is  the  source  of  all 
its  actual  sin,  has  in  fact  hitherto  been  the 
received  explanation  of  the  waywardness  of 
childhood  and  also  of  the  universal  depravity 
of  mankind.  And  from  loyalty  to  this 
doctrine  many  who  have  been  remarkable  for 
their  love  for  children  have  been  led  to  depict 
their  nature  in  the  darkest  colours. 

The  doctrine  of  original  sin  refers  the 
universal   prevalence    of    moral    imperfection 


The  Child  and  Sin         157 

throughout  the  race  to  a  fall  from  an  original 
state  of  innocence  or  integrity  at  the  begin- 
ning of  human  history.  That  catastrophe  is 
held  to  have  corrupted  human  nature  so  that 
every  human  being  finds  himself,  from  the 
moment  of  his  birth,  in  a  state  of  moral 
derangement,  and  inclined,  by  an  ingrained 
bias,  to  evil  rather  than  to  good.  Thus  every 
child  is  credited  by  the  theologian  with  an 
"ineradicable  taint  of  sin,"  derived  from  his 
first  parent  and  received  through  hereditary 
transmission.  Our  whole  nature  was  thereby 
rendered  "  shattered  and  unsound,"  the  balance 
of  flesh  and  spirit  disturbed,  the  normal  and 
free  action  of  the  will  hindered.  Such  in- 
herited taint  or  bias,  "  original  sin,"  as  it  is 
termed,  is  indeed  distinguished  from  actual  or 
voluntary  sin,  of  which  it  is  said  to  be  the 
source,  and  is  by  many  Christians  regarded  as 
something  which  rather  appeals  to  the  compas- 
sion of  God  than  merits  His  anger.  Yet 
original  sin  has  generally  been  held,  within  the 
Christian  Church,  to  involve  guilt. 


158     The  Child  and   Religion 

The  following  citations  from  the  formularies 
of  various  branches  of  the  Church  will  serve 
to  illustrate  Christian  teaching  on  this  subject. 

The  ninth  Anglican  Article  declares  that 
original  sin  "  is  the  fault  and  corruption  of  the 
nature  of  every  man,  that  naturally  is  engen- 
dered of  the  offspring  of  Adam,  whereby  man 
is  very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness, 
and  is  of  his  own  nature  inclined  to  evil,  so 
that  the  flesh  lusteth  always  contrary  to  the 
spirit,  and  therefore,  in  every  person  born  into 
this  world,  it  deserveth  God's  wrath  and 
damnation." 

The  Westminster  Confession  speaks  still 
more  strongly:  "By  this  sin  they  [Adam  and 
Eve]  fell  from  their  original  righteousness 
and  communion  with  God,  and  so  became 
dead  in  sin,  and  wholly  defiled  in  all  the 
faculties  and  parts  of  soul  and  body.  They 
being  the  root  of  all  mankind,  the  guilt  of 
this  sin  was  imputed,  and  the  same  death  in 
sin  and  corrupted  nature  conveyed  to  all  their 
posterity,  descending  from  them  by  ordinary 


The  Child  and  Sin         159 

generation.  From  this  original  corruption, 
whereby  we  are  utterly  indisposed,  disabled, 
and  made  opposite  to  all  good,  and  wholly 
inclined  to  all  evil,  do  proceed  all  actual 
transgressions." 

The  Roman  CathoUc  doctrine  of  original 
sin  differs  from  that  of  the  Protestant  branches 
of  the  Church  chiefly  in  regarding  the  effect 
of  the  Fall  as  a  loss  of  a  supernatural  addition 
to  unfallen  man's  nature  rather  than  as  a 
corruption  of  that  nature  itself.  Our  nature 
was  affected  but  indirectly,  and  was  weakened 
rather  than  wholly  depraved.  The  Roman 
Church  also  denies  that  concupiscence,  which 
it  takes  to  be  a  result  of  the  Fall,  is  of  the 
nature  of  sin. 

So  long  as  the  idea  that  man  was  originally 
created  at  once  a  moral  and  an  innocent  being, 
positively  good  and  free  from  evil,  dominated 
Christian  thought,  it  was  natural  to  regard 
the  universality  of  sin  as  only  explicable  in 
terms  of  heredity,  and  to  refer  the  general 
depravity  of  the  race  to  the  "  wreck  and  ruin 


i6o    The  Child  and  Religion 

of  a  once  fair  and  perfect  harmony."  Since, 
however,  the  doctrine  of  the  special  creation 
of  man  has  been  abandoned  in  the  hght  of 
modern  scientific  knowledge,  and  his  gradual 
emergence  from  a  brute  condition  has  become 
a  received  belief,  the  doctrine  of  a  catastrophic 
moral  fall  of  the  whole  race  in  its  head  has 
been  correspondingly  discredited.  Increased 
knowledge  as  to  the  nature  of  the  narratives 
contained  in  the  early  chapters  of  Genesis 
has  also  contributed  to  this  change  of  view. 
Further,  the  critical  examination  both  of  the 
concepts  and  of  the  processes  involved  in  the 
derangement  of  human  nature  by  a  moral  lapse 
on  the  part  of  the  first  parents  of  the  race, 
and  in  the  transmission  by  natural  heredity 
of  the  consequences  believed  to  be  derived 
from  that  event,  has  brought  to  light  many 
difficulties  which  render  the  doctrine  of  a  Fall 
and  of  Original  Sin,  in  the  judgment  of  many, 
untenable.^     And  so,  although  these  doctrines 

1  An  examination  of  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  from 
the  points  of  view  of  natural  science  and  philosophy  will 


I 


The  Child  and  Sin  i6i 

have  until  lately  commanded  the  assent  not 
only  of  theologians,  but  also  of  poets  and 
philosophers,  there  are  many  to-day  who  feel 
compelled  to  seek  in  another  direction  for  an 
explanation  of  the  universality  of  human 
sinfulness,  and  therefore  also  for  the  key  to 
the  interpretation  of  the  nature  of  the  child. 

A  scientific  account  of  the  moral  condition 
of  infancy  and  childhood  can  be  the  outcome 
only  of  observation,  experiment,  and  induction. 
And  of  late  years  much  work  has  been  done, 
and  much  literature  has  been  written,  in  con- 
nection with  the  psychology  of  early  age ; 
consequently  some  light  has  been  thrown  on 
the  genesis  and  growth  of  sin  in  the  individual 
human  being. 

Let  us  then  proceed,  in  the  light  of  such 
knowledge,  to  examine  first  of  all  the  child's 

be  found  in  the  present  writer  s  ^Hulsean  Lectures  on  The 
Origin  and  Propagation  of  Sin,  Pitt  Press^  1902  ;  and  a  full 
investigation  of  the  Fall  story^  its  sources  and  nature^  and 
of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  doctrines  based  upon  it_,  is 
undertaken  in  his  History  of  the  Doctrines  of  the  Fall  and 
Origi7ial  Sin,  1903. 

11 


1 62     The  Child  and  Religion 

''  nature."  By  that  term  is  here  meant  the 
sum  of  the  endowments  with  which  the  child 
is  born,  the  mental  "  faculties  "  ^  or  functions 
imparted  to  the  infant  by  physical  heredity, 
as  distinguished  from  those  which  are  after- 
wards acquired  only  through  the  mediation 
of  human  suggestion  and  teaching.  The  line 
between  these  two  classes  of  mental  qualities 
cannot,  of  course,  be  traced  with  exactness  or 
completeness.  The  infant's  mental  birth-in- 
heritance does  not  consist  entirely  of  already 
crystallised  instincts  and  functions.  There  are 
also  present,  no  doubt,  the  germs  of  faculties 
which  are  destined  to  develop  unaided  from 
without,  such  as  the  capacity  to  apprehend 
objects.  These,  however,  are  probably  of  no 
concern  to  our  present  inquiry.  Again,  it  is 
not  possible  for  an  infant  to  rear  itself  apart 
from  human  society,  and  therefore  it  is  im- 
possible  for   us    to   ascertain   by   observation 

^  The  use  of  the  convenient  terminology  of  ^^  faculty 
psychology "  may  be  allowed^  I  trusty  for  the  very  reason 
that  the  faulty  theory  which  gave  rise  to  it  is  so  completely 
abandoned. 


The  Child  and  Sin         163 

what  mental  powers  and  functions  would  be 
possessed  by  such  a  child ;  but  we  shall  see 
presently  that  some  of  those  faculties  which 
are  most  characteristic  of  man  would  certainly 
not  be  evolved,  and  these  cannot  therefore  be 
included  in  the  infant's  heritage  or  be  regarded 
as  belonging  to  its  "  nature/'  as  defined  above. 
What  then  do  psychologists,  who  have 
studied  the  infant  mind,  find  to  be  the  con- 
stitution of  human  experience  during  the  first 
epoch  of  mental  life  ?  No  one,  of  course, 
believes  now,  if  indeed  anyone  did  in  Locke's 
time,  in  innate  ideas.  There  is  no  such  com- 
plex furniture  in  the  infant's  mind  at  birth  as 
the  general  idea  ;  even  what  Kant  called  the 
forms  of  intuition,  space  and  time,  modern 
psychology  has  shown  to  be  the  outcome  of 
elaborate  synthesis.  The  infant's  experience 
begins  in  raw  sensations,  feelings  of  pleasure 
and  pain,  and  the  motor  adaptations  to  which 
these  lead.^     With  these,  and  with  the  latent 

1  Professor  J.  M.  Baldwin,  Mental  Development  in  the  Child 
and  the  Race,  p.  17. 


164    The  Child  and  Religion 

germs  of  the  faculties  of  perception  and 
thought,  which  cannot  be  observed  but  which 
must  be  assumed  in  order  to  account  for  the 
development  of  the  child  into  the  man,  we 
have  no  concern.  There  remain  only  the 
congenital  instincts  and  appetites.  By  an 
"instinct"  the  psychologist  now  generally 
means  an  original,  innate  tendency  of  con- 
sciousness to  express  itself  in  a  particular 
adaptive  bodily  action,  in  response  to  some 
particular  and  definite  stimulus  from  without. 
The  word  has  often  been  used  more  loosely, 
so  as  to  include  activities  which  are  cases  of 
imitation  and  rapid  learning  ;  but  such  psychol- 
ogists as  restrict  its  application  to  the  type 
of  action  defined  above  are  agreed  that  in  man 
the  instincts  are  relatively  few.  Their  paucity 
secures  greater  adaptability  and  capacity  for 
high  mental  development.  And  most  of  the 
infant's  instincts  come  to  an  end  with  the  rise 
of  volition. 

Inasmuch   as  instincts  are  automatic,  con- 
sciousness   being    present    at    all    instinctive 


i 


The  Child  and  Sin  165 

actions  only  as  a  spectator,  as  it  were,  and 
not  as  a  guide,  it  is  obvious  that  no  ethical 
attribute,  such  as  "good"  or  ''bad,"  can  be 
applied  to  them,  or,  at  least,  to  the  infant  for 
possessing  them.  Moreover,  they  are  necessary 
to  life,  and  therefore  cannot  be  looked  upon 
as  something  alien  to  the  "  essence  "  of  human 
nature,  the  result  of  its  corruption  through  a 
Fall. 

Nor  can  we  discover  any  sign  of  heredi- 
tary taint  about  the  appetites  which  every 
human  being  inherits.  Neither  their  mere 
presence  nor  their  intensity  can  be  regarded 
as  a  sign  of  the  derangement  of  man's  nature. 
Appetites  are  organic  needs  craving  satisfac- 
tion. Their  presence  or  absence  is  never, 
from  first  to  last,  dependent  on  volition ; 
they  cannot  be  stifled  or  eradicated,  that  is, 
by  voluntary  effort.  The  satisfaction  of  the 
appetites  of  hunger  and  thirst,  indeed,  is  as 
necessary  to  life  as  is  that  of  the  need  of 
air  or  sleep  or  warmth.  The  appetite  of 
sex,  which   is   not  developed   in   early  child- 


1 66    The  Child  and  Religion 

hood,  is  not  necessary,  like  those  of  hunger 
and  thirst,  to  the  Ufe  of  the  individual ;  but 
it  is  essential  to  the  life  of  the  species.  The 
mere  possession  of  appetites,  then,  which  are 
admittedly  the  most  general  occasions  of 
human  sin  and  sinfulness,  is  not  a  proof  of 
defection  from  original  righteousness ;  and 
indeed  this  has  not  often  been  asserted  to  be 
the  case.^  If  there  is  any  touch  of  original  sin 
about  them,  it  must  be  connected  not  with 
their  existence  but  with  their  intensity.  It 
has  frequently  been  argued,  with  some  plausi- 
bility, by  advocates  of  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin,  that  the  animal  appetites  of  man- 
kind are  more  vehement  than  is  necessary  to 
normal  and  healthy  human  nature,  that  the 
pleasure  which  accompanies  their  satisfaction 
is  inordinate,  and  is  a  result  of  that  dis- 
turbance of  the  balance  between  flesh  and 
spirit  in  which  is  seen  one  of  the  consequences 

1  Such  a  view  seems  to  have  been  held  by  Gregory  of 

Nyssa  (De  Virginitate^  c.  12;  De  Homin,  opific.  cc.   l6,  17, 

etc.),  and,  before  him,  by  the  author  of  The  Apocalypse 
oj  Baruch, 


The  Child  and   Sin  167 

of  the  Fall.  But  since  we  have  come  to 
believe  in  the  animal  origin  of  man's  physical 
nature,  we  are  compelled  to  regard  these 
appetites,  with  all  their  intensity,  as  survivals 
whose  presence  is  inevitable  and  a  part  of 
the  course  of  Nature ;  and  scientific  students 
of  infancy  tell  us  that  they  are  necessary, 
in  their  full  power,  to  life  or  health  or  growth, 
or  to  the  subsequent  realisation  of  distinctively 
human  mental  qualities.  The  infant,  for  some 
months,  is  indeed  wholly  under  the  sway  of 
its  inborn  tendencies.  Its  experience,  we  are 
told,  is  at  first  entirely  constituted  by  blank 
sensations  and  feelings  of  pleasure  and  pain.^ 
It  is  a  sentient  automaton,  adapted  for  para- 
sitic dependence  upon  its  environment.  The 
intensity  of  the  young  child's  appetites  is, 
biologically,  a  sign  of  future  health  and  vigour, 
and  its  apparent  faults  or  signs  of  corruption 
are  organic  necessities. 

As   the   infant   grows,   it   is  stimulated  by 
pleasant   or  painful    feeling    to    form    habits. 

1  Baldwin^  loc,  cit. 


1 68     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

It  is  both  physiologically  and  psychologically 
true  that  the  repetition  of  an  action  makes 
that  action  easier.  And  as  the  function  of 
will  emerges  and  develops,  this  too  con- 
tributes to  the  formation  of  such  habits. 
Only  one  sanction  is  as  yet  known  to  the 
infant — that  of  success  ;  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil  has  not  yet  emerged.  The  forma- 
tion, therefore,  of  the  earliest  habits  is  a  non- 
moral  phenomenon.  Doubtless  the  young 
child  sometimes  presents  an  ugly  spectacle 
of  apparent  selfishness  in  the  satisfaction 
of  its  appetites,  and  of  passionate  resentment 
to  restraint  on  their  indulgence.  But  in  such 
behaviour  it  is  only  following  its  "  nature." 
Children's  dislike  of  restraint  upon  pleasure, 
until  developed  intelligence  discerns  its  reason- 
ableness, is  both  natural  and  inevitable. 

Thus  the  infant,  simply  as  man,  and  not 
necessarily  as  fallen  man,  possesses  propensities 
which,  as  soon  as  his  moral  life  begins,  must  of 
necessity  plunge  him  into  an  arduous  and 
never-ending  struggle  if  he  is  to  order  himself 


The  Child  and  Sin  169 

as  a  rational  and  moral  being.  The  animal 
ancestry  of  mankind,  the  very  means  by  which 
God  has  willed  that  the  human  race  should 
come  into  being,  is  responsible  for  elements  in 
our  inherited  nature  common  with  those  of  the 
brutes — elements  of  "  the  ape  and  tiger  "  ;  and 
we  cannot  speak  of  these  elements,  any  more 
than  we  can  speak  of  the  habits  or  instincts  of 
the  lower  animals,  as  things  which  "  ought  not 
to  be."  We  can  only  say  of  them  that  they 
ought  not,  as  the  child  grows  up,  to  remain 
"  unmoralised,"  ^  and  that  their  non-moralisa- 
tion  constitutes  sin. 

It  is  to  be  admitted,  then,  that  all  children 
inherit  the  tendencies  of  the  stock  ;  but  it  has 
been  shown  that  there  is  no  reason  to  see  in 
these  tendencies,  either  in  their  existence  or 
in  their  intensity,  any  fault  or  corruption  of 

1  I  have  borrowed  the  expression  '^  moralisation  '*  in  this 
context  from  Prof.  J.  Seth's  Ethical  Principles  (5th  ed., 
p.  233^  etc.).  It  is  intended  to  describe  the  bringing  of 
the  instincts  and  passions  under  the  constraint  of  moral 
laWj  the  refusal  to  indulge  them  for  mere  self-gratification, 
and  the  partial  or  complete  inhibition  of  them  in  accord- 
ance with  ends  dictated  by  reason  and  morality. 


lyo    The  Child  and  Religion 

nature,  any  sign  of  dislocation  or  derangement 
or  deprivation  such  as  is  asserted  by  the 
doctrine  of  original  sin.  It  remains  further  to 
add  that,  in  any  case,  these  tendencies  could 
not  be  regarded  as  of  the  nature  of  "  sin,"  unless 
we  agreed  to  rob  ethical  terms  of  their  ethical 
significance.  The  term  "  Sin,"  and  its  deriva- 
tives, can  surely  only  be  applied  to  the  issues 
of  the  will.  We  speak,  indeed,  of  good  and 
bad  states,  and  of  good  and  bad  characters ; 
but  a  moral  state  or  a  character  is  the  result 
of  voluntary  action.  If  we  apply  the  term 
sinful  to  hereditary  temperament,  to  natural 
impulses  or  appetites  as  such,  we  must  not 
only  commit  ourselves  to  a  Manichaean 
doctrine  of  evil,  but  also,  if  we  would  be 
logical,  must  apply  ethical  terms  to  the  con- 
duct of  the  brute  creation.  In  scientific 
theology  it  is  most  desirable  to  banish  all  such 
expressions  as  "  sinful  flesh,"  "  sinful  passions," 
"sinful"  or  "sinless"  nature;  for  the  things 
described  as  sinful  or  sinless  are  only  so 
describable  in  a  loose,  incorrect  manner,  and 


The  Child  and  Sin  171 

such  use  of  language  only  introduces  obscurity, 
confusion,  and  inaccuracy  into  the  discussion  of 
questions  which  it  is  of  importance  to  handle 
only  with  language  of  scientific  precision. 

We  have  seen,  then,  so  far,  that  the  inborn 
tendencies  of  the  child  are  natural  and  non- 
moral.  We  may  add  that  they  are  likewise 
neutral  as  regards  promise  of  subsequent 
ethical  outcome.  They  are  the  raw  material 
out  of  which  good  as  well  as  evil,  virtue  as 
well  as  vice,  may  be  hewn  and  shaped.  They 
are  indifferent  stuff,  awaiting  moralisation. 
The  fear  that  is  natural  to  all  men  is  the 
basis  alike  of  cowardice  and  of  the  highest 
courage,  which  is  by  no  means  identical  with 
fearlessness :  the  natural  emotion  of  anger  is 
the  source  of  righteous  wrath  as  well  as  of 
vindictive  passion.  Our  virtues  and  vices  have 
common  roots  ;  and  what  shall  grow  from  those 
roots  depends  on  the  action  of  the  will  alone. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  in  its  earliest  period 
the  child's  life  is  wholly  innocent  of  actual  sin 
or  inborn  sinfulness.     Its  appetites  are  blind, 


172     The  Child  and  Religion 

rather  of  the  nature  of  wants  than  of  conscious 
desires  ;  action  is  not  purposive,  even  when 
adaptive,  but  simply  an  automatic  response 
to  stimulus,  and  is  therefore  non-moral.  In 
following  its  impulses,  whithersoever  they  lead, 
the  infant  is  as  yet  only  fulfilling  the  law  of 
its  being.  Thus  the  ecclesiastical  doctrine 
of  original  sin  is  to  be  repudiated  entirely 
as  a  key  to  the  problem  of  the  origin  of 
sin  in  the  individual  child.  In  the  first  place 
it  must  be  asserted  that  what  is  inherited 
or  original  is  not  sin  or  taint  but  non-moral 
qualities  ;  further,  that  this  inheritance  is  not 
due  to  a  fall  of  the  race  which  has  damaged 
the  moral  constitution  of  mankind,  but  is  the 
necessary  outcome  of  the  regular  course  of 
Nature ;  and  lastly,  that  our  inheritance  of 
stock-tendencies  is  not  to  be  traced  to  the  first 
human  parent  of  our  race  as  a  first  cause,  but 
to  the  non-human  ancestry  which  preceded 
him. 

If,  then,  there  is  no  corruption  or  derange- 
ment    in     our     inherited      nature     derived 


The  Child  and  Sin  173 

from  a  catastrophic  first  sin  of  the  head 
of  the  race  and  forming  the  source  of 
our  actual  sin,  we  have  to  seek  for  the 
origin  of  the  sinfulness  of  the  individual 
in  his  own  conscious,  volitional  action.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  discuss  here  how  volition — 
the  first  pre-requisite  of  moral  life  —  arises 
and  develops  in  the  child.  Indeed  merely 
to  summarise  the  stages  which  psychologists 
of  infancy,  such  as  Professor  Baldwin,  have 
traced  in  the  appearance  of  the  several  factors 
of  volition,  namely,  desire,  attentive  delibera- 
tion and  effort,  would  require  considerable 
space.  Let  it  suffice  to  say  that  psychology 
has  made  it  plain  that  voluntary  activity  is  grad- 
ually evoked  or  acquired  ;  that  for  a  consider- 
able period  the  infant  is  without  self-decision, 
and  indeed  for  sometime  destitute  of  self- 
consciousness  :  that  the  child's  earliest  conduct 
is  consequently  entirely  non-moral,  and,  in  fact, 
largely  mechanical  or  automatic. 

But  volition  is   not  the   only  pre-requisite 
for  the  possibility  of  sin.     We  do  not  blame 


174    The  Child  and   Religion 

the  apparent  cruelty  or  greediness  of  an  infant, 
any  more  than  we  attribute  sinfulness  to  the 
actions  of  a  cat ;  we  say :  "  they  know  no 
better."  Until  a  child  "knows  better,"  until 
he  has  acquired,  at  least  a  rudimentary  con- 
ception of  the  moral  law  and  its  content,  some 
moral  sense  and  moral  sentiment,  he  cannot 
condemn  his  own  actions  or  understand  how 
or  why  others  can  condemn  them  ;  he  cannot 
be  guilty  of  sin.  Without  law  there  is  no  sin, 
only  innocence.  In  other  words,  sin  becomes 
first  a  possibility  when  the  child  has  acquired 
moral  personality. 

And  this  it  does  through  what  is  called 
social  heredity.  Conscience  is  made,  not 
born ;  or,  rather,  it  is  given.  It  is  obtained 
by  the  child  from  its  human  environment. 
The  growth  of  human  personality,  and 
especially  of  moral  personality,  has  been  found 
to  be  pre-eminently  a  matter  of  social  sugges- 
tion. The  child  grows  into  the  adult  only 
by  drawing  upon  the  store  of  accomplished 
activities,  forms,  and   patterns,  which  society 


The  Child  and  Sin  175 

already  possesses.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how 
the  human  child  could  ever  rise  above  the 
life  of  impulse,  ever  recognise  rightness  or 
wrongness  in  its  conduct,  if  enforced  obedience 
did  not  reveal  to  it  another  life.  It  is  social 
heredity  which  makes  the  child  human  in 
all  except  the  zoological  sense,  and  without 
education  an  infant  would  remain,  so  far  as 
moral  consciousness  is  concerned,  much  at  the 
level  of  the  inferior  animals.  It  is  in  the  light 
of  this  fact  of  social  heredity,  rather  than  in 
that  of  the  theory  of  a  physically  inherited 
corruption  of  nature,  that  we  see  the  signifi- 
cance of  Christian  baptism :  the  initiation  of 
the  child  into  the  atmosphere  of  Christian 
influence  and  teaching. 

Psychologists  tell  us  that,  roughly  and 
generally  speaking,  the  awakening  of  the 
moral  faculty  occurs  somewhere  about  the 
age  of  three  years.  The  rudimentary  stage  of 
conscience  is  called  out  chiefly  by  enforced 
obedience  to  commands — obedience  compelled 
by  punishments.     At  first   the    young   child 


176    The  Child  and  Religion 

cannot  understand  the  law  which  it  is  called 
upon  to  obey.  It  cannot  in  the  least  predict, 
until  it  has  learned  by  experience  to  do  so, 
what  actions  will  be  forbidden  and  what  will 
not.  For  a  long  time  it  blunders  in  its  en- 
deavours to  find  out.  It  gradually  learns  the 
content  of  the  moral  law,  however,  partly  by 
instruction  and  correction,  partly  by  imita- 
tion, and,  later,  by  reflection.  Thus  there 
grows  up,  very  slowly,  a  moral  ideal,  whose 
fulness  enlarges  as  experience  widens.  This 
ideal  is  at  first  embodied  in  the  parent  or 
instructor,  and  afterwards  in  God.  At  first 
"  good  "  is  simply  what  is  permitted,  "  evil " 
what  is  forbidden ;  but  at  last  the  abstract 
ideas  of  goodness  and  badness  are  compre- 
hended, and  dissociated  from  their  concrete 
embodiments.  The  great  part  played  by 
imitation  in  moulding  the  moral  ideal  of  youth 
is  best  illustrated  by  the  life  of  the  school, 
with  its  "  tone  "  or  aggregate  of  sanctions,  some 
of  which  we  recognise  as  arbitrary  when  we 
outgrow  our  childhood.     At  a  later  stage  of 


The  Child  and  Sin  177 

youth,  hero-worship  plays  an  important  part 
in  framing  our  moral  ideals.  But  from  first 
to  last  the  content  of  the  moral  law  is  learned 
from  environment.  And  when  conscience 
has  thus  been  sufficiently  developed  to  enable 
the  child,  unaided,  to  condemn  its  own  actions, 
it  ceases  to  be  innocent  with  the  innocence  of 
good  and  evil.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  sin 
becomes  a  possibility ;  for  there  is  no  sin 
without  a  law  and  an  apprehension  of  the 
claims  of  law.^  Henceforth  the  tendency  to 
satisfy  all  desires  as  they  come,  a  tendency 
hitherto  natural  and  inevitable  and  sinless, 
meets  with  the  check  of  a  law  which  the 
child  has  learned  to  regard  as  something  within 
itself.  The  newly-made  moral  agent  has  now 
much  to  unlearn,  much  to  subdue.  Sin  does 
not  begin,  with  the  individual  any  more  than 
with  the  race,  in  going  out  of  the  way  to 
commit  what  is  strange  and  alien  to  the  whole 

^  This  I  must  insist  upon  in  spite  of  opposition.  Where 
"  sin  "  is  not  the  correlative  of  *'  guilt  "  or  ''  blame/'  another 
term  should  be  used.  Imperfection  and  sin  are  widely 
different  concepts. 

12 


178     The  Child  and   Religion 

of  past  experience,  but  in  failing  to  alter  or  to 
abandon  forms  of  conduct  which  have  already 
become  habitual  and  which,  once  forbidden, 
are  thenceforth  regarded  as  wrong. 

And  so  the  moral  life  is  a  race  in  which 
every  child  starts  handicapped.  The  pleasures 
of  forms  of  conduct  which  are  destined  to  be 
forbidden  him  have  been  tasted  and  known ; 
pleasure-giving  actions  have  already  become 
forged  into  chains  of  habit ;  the  expulsive 
power  of  the  new  affection  which  is  to 
establish  another  rule  cannot  at  first  be 
strongly  felt.  When  will  and  conscience 
enter,  it  is  into  a  land  already  occupied  by  a 
powerful  foe.  And,  in  the  opening  stages  of 
the  moral  life,  higher  motives  cannot,  from 
the  very  circumstances  of  the  case,  appeal  so 
strongly  as  the  lower  and  more  accustomed 
already  in  possession.  Into  the  "seething 
and  tumultuous  life  of  natural  tendency,  of 
appetite  and  passion,  affection  and  desire  "  is 
introduced  the  new-born  moral  purpose,  which 
must  struggle  to  win  the  ascendancy.      And 


The  Child  and  Sin  179 

this  fact  would  seem  to  supply  a  sufficient 
explanation  of  the  universality  of  human  sin- 
fulness. Not  that  sin  is  to  be  excused,  in  any 
stage  of  development  either  of  the  race  or 
of  the  individual ;  sin  is  sin,  though  the  avoid- 
ing of  it  be  stupendously  difficult.  But  the 
absence  of  a  single  case  of  absolutely  sinless  life 
among  the  sons  of  men  is  no  marvel  that  needs 
to  be  violently  accounted  for,  as  the  human 
mind  has  long  striven  to  do,  by  means  of  a 
catastrophic  fall  in  this  world  or  another. 

The  source  of  sin  in  the  earliest  stage  of  the 
child's  moral  life,  and  the  only  fomes  peccati 
at  that  period,  is  the  appetites  and  impulses 
arising  from  within :  it  is  "  the  flesh."  But 
the  child's  world  soon  widens,  and  new  occa- 
sions for  failure  in  the  realisation  of  the  moral 
self  come  from  without.  The  social  heredity 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  makes  the  child  a 
moral  being  is  also  responsible  for  many  of 
his  occasions,  indeed  many  of  his  temptations, 
to  sin.  For  the  society  in  which  the  child 
sooner  or  later  finds  himself  is  itself  more  or 


i8o     The  Child   and  Religion 

less  morally  imperfect,  or  corrupt,  and  the 
examples,  the  conventions,  the  moral  traditions 
and  influences  which  it  transmits  to  the  child 
are  tainted ;  it  suggests  evil,  sanctions  evil, 
encourages  evil.  The  expansion  of  the  child's 
own  intellectual  life  also,  and  its  growing 
experience,  supplies  new  inducements  to  evil, 
and  more  and  more  possibilities  for  evil. 
"  He  that  increaseth  knowledge,  increaseth 
sorrow."  Thought  transmutes  the  primary 
human  appetites,  making  them  centres  of 
complicated  desires  and  ambitions.  Reason 
indeed  gives  larger  scope  for  selfishness  than 
mere  instinct,  and  enormously  extends  the 
field  which  morality  has  to  conquer.  The 
whole  intellectual  life,  as  well  as  our  mere 
sensibility,  needs  to  be  moralised,  to  be 
claimed  for  God  and  devoted  to  Him.  And 
further,  the  nexus  of  human  relationships  ever 
grows  larger  and  more  complicated  ;  and  here 
again  is  increased  scope  for  falling  short  of  the 
ideal,  for  doing  what  ought  not  to  be  done,  and 
leaving  undone  what  ought  to  be  done. 


The  Child  and  Sin         i8i 

It  will  be  obvious  that  the  sin  which  is  most 
Ukely  to  beset  the  child  most  importunately 
at  the  commencement  of  its  moral  life  must 
be  disobedience.  In  the  first  place,  it  will  be 
unable  then  to  recognise  that  the  forbidden 
act  is  in  itself  sinful,  apart  from  the  fact  that 
it  is  prohibited  by  the  parent,  and  will  only  be 
able  to  look  upon  it  as  wrong  because  it  has 
been  forbidden ;  and  therefore  any  act  that  is 
condemned  as  sinful  will  be  condemned  because 
it  is  an  act  of  disobedience,  whatever  its  nature. 
And  secondly,  obedience  is  necessarily  the 
virtue  which  is  most  strenuously  thrust  and 
impressed  upon  the  child  in  its  earliest  years. 
The  central  precept  for  childhood  is  obedience, 
because  considerable  docility  and  submissive- 
ness,  being  the  one  condition  for  learning  other 
virtues,  is  required  before  all  else.  Hence  it 
is  that  laxity  in  bringing  up  and  weakness  in 
indulging  the  waywardness,  which  ought  to  be 
strictly  coerced,  in  a  young  child  are  of  the 
utmost  danger  to  the  child's  moral  well-being, 
and  in   a   very  literal  and  very  serious  sense 


1 82     The  Child  and  Religion 

"spoil"  the  child.  Perhaps  the  next  most 
serious  error  in  parental  education  of  child- 
hood is  the  strict  enforcement  of  obedience 
without  the  painstaking  endeavour,  in  every 
crossing  of  the  child's  will,  every  punishment 
inflicted  upon  him,  and  every  appeal  addressed 
to  him,  to  enlist  his  judgment,  his  affection 
and  his  respect  on  the  side  of  the  law  which  is 
being  upheld,  in  so  far  as  the  reason  and  moral 
beauty  of  that  law  is  comprehensible  to  the 
childish  mind.  Coercion  which  is  arbitrary 
and  vacillating,  now  strictly  insisting  on  com- 
pliance and  now  weakly  giving  way,  is  only 
calculated  to  destroy  the  child's  sense  of  the 
gravity  and  binding  nature  of  the  moral  law. 

So  far,  in  discussing  the  morality  of  child- 
hood, we  have  spoken  of  moral  evil  rather 
than  of  sin.^     The   reason  is  that  the  child's 

1  For  the  purposes  of  this  essay,  sin  and  evil  are  inter- 
changeable terms.  The  one  is  the  ethical,  the  other  the 
religious  and  theological,  expression  for  conscious  trans- 
gression of  moral  law.  When  the  law  transgressed  is 
identified  with  the  Divine  Will,  its  transgression  is 
generally  called  ^'  sin." 


The  Child  and  Sin         183 

earliest "  lawlessness  "  is  transgression  of  human 
law  rather  than  of  law  which  is  recognised  as 
divine.  But  the  child  of  Christian  parentage 
is  at  a  very  early  age  taught  to  think  of  God, 
and  to  regard  all  its  conduct  as  open  before 
Him  and  performed  with  reference  to  Him. 
And  the  child  is  usually  in  very  intimate 
relationship  with  the  God  in  whom  it  has 
readily  been  taught  to  believe.  The  relation 
is  generally  not  so  much  one  of  awe  as  of 
intimacy,  although  the  religious  life  of  the 
young  child  generally  influences  profoundly 
its  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  and  invests  all 
breaches  of  duty  with  a  strong  sense  of  sin. 
Wrong-doing,  therefore,  very  soon  becomes 
identified  with  sin,  and  disobedience  to  a 
parent,  for  instance,  with  disobedience  to  God. 
Thenceforward  religion  becomes  a  motive- 
power  to  right  conduct  and  supplies  depth 
and  inwardness  to  the  sense  of  sin  and  guilt ; 
the  sinfulness  of  sin  becomes  more  apparent, 
and  the  transgression  of  moral  law  more 
serious.     From   this   stage,  however,  the  sin- 


184    The  Child  and  Religion 

fulness  of  the  child  approximates  in  all 
essentials  to  the  sinfulness  of  the  adult  person, 
and  there  is  no  need  to  prosecute  further  an 
investigation  such  as  has  here  been  under- 
taken. 

F.  R.  TENNANT. 

HocKwoLD,  Norfolk. 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  CHILDREN 

The  word  Conversion  is  used  in  a  narrower 
and  a  wider  sense.  In  the  narrower  sense 
it  means  a  turning  from  sin  to  God,  and 
is  to  be  distinguished  from  justification  and 
regeneration,  carrying  in  it  a  strong,  active, 
human  element.  In  this  strict  meaning  it 
cannot  be  applied  to  children  in  the  pre-natal 
and  infant  states.  In  the  wider  sense  it 
denotes  the  whole  process  by  which  a  man 
is  made  a  true  Christian,  the  change,  objective 
and  subjective,  which  takes  place  when  he 
becomes  a  sincere  follower  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
This  is  the  sense  it  usually  bears  both  in 
colloquial  and  theological  speech,  and  in  this 
sense   only   can    it   be    applied    to    children. 

185 


1 86     The  Child  and  Religion 

Therefore  this  is  the  meaning  it  will  bear  in 
the  present  article. 


The  great  bulk  of  theologians,  Roman  and 
Protestant,  agree  in  emphasising  the  doctrine 
of  original  sin,  which  means  that  men  are 
born  in  a  sinful  condition.  They  differ  in 
their  explanation  of  the  doctrine  ;  but  there 
is  substantial  agreement  as  to  the  central  fact, 
that  every  child  begins  his  earthly  career  with 
a  tainted  nature.  They  teach  over  and  above 
the  unwholesomeness  of  the  surroundings,  the 
depravation  of  the  nature,  the  evil  bias  of  the 
human  soul.  Men  are  born  in  sin,  a  fact 
undisputed  by  all  serious  students  of  the 
Bible  and  of  humanity.  But  here  a  question 
emerges  :  What  is  intended  by  the  affirmation 
that  all  men  are  born  sinners  ?  What  is  sin  ? 
Sin  is  always  and  everywhere  composed  of 
two  elements,  guilt  and  depravity.  The  doc- 
trine, therefore,  is  that  children  are  born  guilty 
and  depraved,  guilt  lying  on  them,  defilement 


The  Conversion  of  Children    187 

dwelling  in  them.  It  is  of  no  consequence 
what  poetry  says  on  the  subject ;  the  question 
is,  What  does  the  Bible  teach  ?  If  our  view 
is  correct,  it  is  self-evident  that  without  Con- 
version, no  one,  be  he  man  or  child,  shall  see 
the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

(1)  Let  us  consider  the  first  element — guilt. 
Admitting  that  Holy  Writ  teaches  original 
sin,  does  it  teach  original  guilt  ?  The  classical 
passage  bearing  on  this  question  is  Rom.  v. 
12-18.  Whatever  obscurities  lie  in  it,  its 
main  tenor  is  clear — St  Paul  is  proving  the 
guilt  of  all  men,  young  and  old,  from  the 
fact  that  all  men  suffer  the  penalty  of  guilt, 
to  wit,  death.  It  is  an  argument  from  the 
effect  to  the  cause,  from  the  universality  of 
the  punishment  to  the  universality  of  the 
guilt.  Children,  who  have  not  sinned  accord- 
ing to  the  similitude  of  Adam's  transgression, 
die.  If  they  die,  thus  suffering  the  penalty 
of  sin,  they  must  have  sinned  —  sinned  in 
a  pre-temporal  state  according  to  Origen,  in 
a   super  -  temporal   state  according  to   Julius 


1 88     The  Child  and  Religion 

Miiller,  in  Adam  according  to  the  evangelical 
divines.  Accordingly,  all  children  are  born  in 
a  state  of  guilt,  and  consequently  of  condemna- 
tion. 

Guilt,  however,  is  divisible  into  two  ele- 
ments :  personal  blameworthiness  {reatus 
culpce),  and  liability  to  punishment  {reatus 
poence).  Do  children  labour  under  this  two- 
fold guilt  ?  In  the  answer  returned,  orthodox 
and  evangelical  writers  differ  much.  Those 
who  follow  the  lead  of  St  Augustine  adopt 
the  extreme  view,  that  the  unconscious  babe 
is  personally  blameworthy  as  well  as  liable  to 
suffer  death,  the  announced  penalty  of  trans- 
gression. "Death  passed  upon  all  men,  for 
that  all  sinned  "  (aorist  tense),  indicating  that 
all  are  partakers,  not  only  in  the  consequences, 
but  also  in  the  commission  of  sin.  Hence 
individual  culpability,  implying  personal  guilt. 
Others  hold  a  more  moderate  view,  that  chil- 
dren are  not  by  nature  personally  blameworthy, 
but  that  in  virtue  of  their  racial  and  federal 
union  with  Adam  they  suffer  the  legal  penalty 


The  Conversion  of  Children    189 

of  transgression.  Denying  their  moral  guilt, 
they  maintain  their  forensic  liability  to  suiFer 
the  punishment  due  for  sin. 

The  milder  view,  concerning  which  there 
is  no  controversy  among  theologians,  though 
considered  inadequate  by  many,  is  adopted 
here,  because  evidently  the  Scriptures  teach 
it.  They  may  possibly  teach  the  Augustinian 
view  ;  they  certainly  teach  the  more  moderate 
view.  If  there  be  any  point  to  the  Apostle's 
argument,  it  is  that  death  has  passed  upon  all 
men,  even  children,  in  consequence  of  Adam's 
disobedience.  It  may,  of  course,  be  held  that 
death  is  only  a  natural  event,  without  any 
moral  significance,  totally  unconnected  with 
sin,  inevitable  in  the  human  race  as  in  vege- 
table and  animal  organisms  ;  and  that  as  death 
reigned  in  the  animal  world  before  the  Fall, 
so  death  in  the  human  world  cannot  be  the 
consequence  of  the  Fall.  But  whilst  every- 
body will  admit  that  death  in  the  vegetable 
and  animal  kingdoms  is  a  natural  event,  inde- 
pendent of  sin,  we  must,  on  the  other  hand. 


I  go     The  Child  and  ReUgion 

contend  that  in  Scriptural  teaching  death 
among  men  is  viewed  as  the  effect  of  sin — not 
merely  a  calamity  but  a  punishment.  Had 
Adam  continued  in  his  integrity,  his  posterity 
would  not  have  died.  But  ''death  reigned 
from  Adam  to  Moses,  even  over  those  that 
had  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression."  Infants  die.  Why?  Not 
because  the  physical  machinery  is  worn  out, 
but  because  all  lie  under  the  guilt  in  the 
limited  sense  that  all  are  liable  to  suffer  the 
penalty  due  for  disobedience.  The  how  and 
the  why,  the  mode  and  the  reason,  lie  outside 
the  circle  of  our  present  discussion ;  we  are 
concerned  simply  about  the  facts.  Objections 
may  be  raised  against  the  organic  or  federal 
constitution  of  humanity — in  favour  of  indi- 
vidualism and  against  collectivism  ;  in  favour  of 
singularity  and  against  solidarity  ;  and  though 
they  may  destroy  our  argument,  they  make  no 
difference  in  the  facts — these  still  remain.  Men, 
young  and  old,  are  born  into  the  world  liable 
at  any  moment  to  bear  the  penalty  of  sin. 


The  Conversion  of  Children    191 

(2)  In  addition  to  the  guilt  of  sin  in  the  sense 
already  defined,  men  are  born  with  the  pos- 
session, not  of  a  corrupt,  but  of  a  corrupted 
nature ;  not  only  with  original  guilt,  but  also 
with  original  depravity.  "  We  were  by  nature 
the  children  of  wrath,  even  as  others"  (Eph.  ii. 
3).  What  is  the  precise  signification  of  the 
phrase  "  by  nature  "  ?  The  same  word  is  used 
in  Rom.  xi.  21 :  "  If  God  spared  not  the 
natural  branches,  take  heed  lest  He  also 
spare  not  thee."  The  natural  branches  are 
those  which  grow  of  themselves  out  of  the 
root,  containing  in  themselves  all  the  quali- 
ties of  the  root,  in  contradistinction  from 
the  branches  grafted  by  art  and  which  may 
be  of  a  different  quality  from  the  tree  into 
which  they  are  imbedded.  Similarly  should 
be  understood,  in  our  opinion,  the  sentence, 
"  By  nature  children  of  wrath,  even  as  others.'' 
If  all  the  apples  on  the  tree  are  crabbed  and 
sour,  they  are  so  by  nature,  having  derived 
their  excessive  acidity  from  the  root.  And 
our   defilement   is   congenital,   not   a  mishap 


192     The  Child  and   Religion 

or  an  accident  occurring  in  the  course  of 
our  development.  Whether  the  doctrine  of 
original  depravity  is  the  same  as  the  modern 
doctrine  of  heredity  does  not  affect  our 
argument  —  we  think  it  is  different.  For 
according  to  the  principle  of  heredity  depravity 
should  increase  with  the  roll  of  the  centuries, 
the  river  of  evil  increasing  in  volume  and 
momentum  in  proportion  as  it  receives  new 
tributaries,  thereby  cutting  a  deeper  channel 
for  its  onflow  in  the  world.  Besides,  heredi- 
tary evil  varies,  whereas  original  sin  is  a 
uniform  quantity,  the  same  in  the  child 
born  yesterday  as  in  the  child  born  the 
first  year  after  the  Fall,  neither  greater 
nor  less.  Original  sin  implies  that  human 
nature  is  polluted  beyond  the  power  of  self- 
purification. 

No  phrase  has  been  more  prominent  in  the 
discussion  of  this  subject  than  that  of  "  total 
depravity."  What  did  Augustine,  Calvin, 
and  their  equally  able  followers  intend  by  it  ? 
Evidently   that   man   by   nature   is   destitute 


The  Conversion  of  Children    193 

of  all  goodness,  and  has  in  him  the  seed  of 
all  vice.  The  Westminster  Confession,  the 
standard  of  orthodoxy  in  Calvinistic  churches, 
teaches  that  our  first  parents  "  became  dead  in 
sins  and  wholly  defiled  in  all  the  faculties  and 
parts  of  soul  and  body,"  and  that  "they 
convey  the  same  death  in  sin  and  corrupted 
nature  to  all  their  posterity."  The  (United) 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  recently  receded 
from  that  extreme  position,  making  "total 
depravity  "  to  mean,  not  total  in  intensity,  but 
total  in  extent,  i.e.  that  no  part  of  our  nature 
has  escaped  the  contagion  of  evil.  According 
to  the  modern  interpretation  it  does  not  signify 
that  human  nature  because  of  original  sin  is  as 
bad  as  it  might  possibly  be,  but  that  in  every 
faculty  it  has  been  tainted  with  badness. 
How  then  came  Augustine,  Calvin,  and  their 
followers  to  emphasise  the  extreme  view? 
Doubtless  by  overlooking  the  fact  that  no  man 
is  born  in  a  state  of  mere  nature.  If  men 
were  born  in  a  state  of  mere  nature  the  ex- 
treme  Augustinian   interpretation   would    be 

13 


194     The  Child  and  Religion 

true.  But  though  true  logically  and  in  the 
abstract,  it  is  not  true  historically  and  in  the 
concrete — grace  commingles  with  nature  from 
the  first  instant  of  the  Fall.  That  was  the 
case  with  our  first  parents.  They  did  not  have 
to  bear  the  full  penalty  of  their  transgression, 
were  not  permitted  to  fall  into  irremediable 
evil,  physical  and  moral.  Divine  Grace  in- 
stantly intervened. 

No  sooner  did  they  transgress  than  the  proto- 
evangel  was  proclaimed.  They  fell  from  the 
Covenant  of  Works  into  the  Covenant  of 
Grace.  Sin  was  not  allowed  to  work  its 
havoc  on  them  or  in  them ;  had  it  been, 
it  would  have  effected  total  depravity  in 
intensity  as  well  as  in  extent.  In  their  objec- 
tive or  legal  condition,  alongside  the  sentence 
of  condemnation  lay  the  promise  of  salvation  ; 
in  their  subjective  or  heart-experience,  along- 
side the  darkness  of  sin  shone  the  light  of 
grace.  Thus  also  in  respect  of  their  offspring. 
Alongside  original  sin  is  original  righteousness, 
the  former  arising  from   the   evil   of  human 


The  Conversion  of  Children    195 

nature,  the  latter  from  the  grace  of  the  Divine 
Nature.  By  nature  men  are  out  and  out  sin- 
ful. But  as  they  are  not  born  in  that  state, 
because  of  the  intervention  of  prevenient  grace, 
they  are  partly  good  and  partly  bad.  God  in 
His  mercy  interposed,  checked  the  downward 
tendency,  broke  the  force  of  the  Fall. 

(3)  This  is  the  common  grace,  acknowledged 
by  theologians  of  all  schools,  that  came  to 
men  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus.  Is  it  not  in  this  partly  that  the  parallel 
between  Adam  and  Christ  as  explained  by 
St  Paul  consists  ?  "  As  by  the  offence  of 
one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  unto  con- 
demnation, even  so  by  the  righteousness  of 
One  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto 
justification  of  life."  Commentators  strive  to 
explain  differently  the  "  all  men  "  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  verse  from  the  "all  men"  at 
the  beginning.  It  appears,  nevertheless,  that 
"  all  men  "  benefited  by  Christ  are  co-extensive 
with  "all  men"  injured  by  Adam.  As  all 
men  fell  under  the  condemnation  consequent 


196     The  Child  and  Religion 

on  Adam's  guilt  without  personal  blameworthi- 
ness, so  they  are  delivered  from  that  con- 
demnation by  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
without  personal  faith.  Thus  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  Redeemer  counteracts  original 
guilt.  It  follows  that  as  no  one  is  damned 
for  original  sin,  only  for  personal  sin,  so  no 
one  who  grows  into  years  of  responsibility 
is  justified  without  the  exercise  of  active 
faith.  Therefore  the  view  here  advocated 
involves  universal  salvation  so  far  as  infants 
who  die  in  their  early  years  are  concerned, 
but  not  the  universal  salvation  of  adults — 
they  must,  by  the  exercise  of  faith  in  the 
Saviour,  voluntarily  accept  deliverance.  Sal- 
vation is  thus  co-extensive  with  the  Fall, 
automatic  in  respect  of  those  who  die  before 
being  able  to  discern  between  good  and  evil, 
but  dependent  upon  its  willing  acceptance 
by  men  of  mature  age. 

What  about  original  sin  viewed  as  de- 
pravity ?  As  original  sin  viewed  as  guilt  is 
counteracted   by  the   righteousness  of  Christ, 


The  Conversion  of  Children    197 

so,  considered  as  corruption,  it  is  neutralised 
by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  this  also  auto- 
matically in  the  case  of  children  dying  under 
the  age  of  responsibility.  Every  child,  being 
a  sinner  in  the  double  sense,  needs  to  be  saved 
in  the  double  sense — he  must  be  justified  and 
he  must  be  regenerated.  How  he  is  justified 
we  have  already  shown — automatically  by  the 
righteousness  of  Christ.  He  must  also  be 
regenerated  by  the  infusion  of  a  new  principle 
of  spiritual  life.  "  That  which  is  born  of  the 
flesh  is  flesh."  Hence  the  necessity  of  re- 
generation by  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  a 
debatable  question  whether  in  adult  life 
regeneration  is  wholly  passive  or  partly 
passive  and  partly  active.  But  concerning 
those  who  die  in  infancy  there  is  no  room  for 
controversy  —  regeneration  must  be  wholly 
passive.  It  is  entirely  the  work  of  the  Spirit. 
But  can  the  Holy  Spirit  regenerate  an 
infant  in  whom  consciousness  has  not  been 
awakened?  The  answer  must  be  in  the 
affirmative.     Jeremiah,  John  the  Baptist,  and 


198     The  Child  and  Religion 

Samuel  were  sanctified  from  the  womb.  It  is 
possible  for  men  to  be  "born  again"  before 
they  are  born  the  first  time,  born  with  the 
"  holy  seed "  in  them  alongside  the  corrupt 
seed.  As  evidence  of  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  to  sanctify  embryonic  human  nature 
it  is  permissible  to  adduce  the  Incarnation. 
"  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee : 
therefore  the  Holy  Thing  which  shall  be  born 
of  thee  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  God " 
(Luke  i.  35).  He  was  a  Thing  before  He  was 
a  Person.  But  the  Thing  was  holy — exempt 
from  original  sin,  just  as  the  Person  was  holy 
— free  from  actual  sin.  It  was  the  function  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Incarnation  to  sanctify 
human  nature  in  its  rudimentary  elements. 
And  what  He  did  in  the  case  of  Christ  He 
can  do  still.  He  is  able  to  regenerate  human 
nature  in  the  unconscious  babe,  and  this  He 
actually  does  in  the  case  of  all  those  who 
die  before  crossing  the  boundary  line  of 
accountability. 

What  then  is   the   condition  of  those  who 


The  Conversion  of  Children    199 

die  in  infancy  ?  The  answers  returned  by  the 
churches  have  been  hesitating  and  diverse. 
The  Roman  CathoHc  Church  teaches  that 
all  baptized  children  are  saved,  all  unbaptized 
lost.  That  is  the  direct  positive  teaching  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  which  in  this  followed 
the  belief  of  patristic  and  mediaeval  theology. 
Protestantism  at  the  outset  probably  adopted 
the  Roman  teaching.  The  Augsburg  Con- 
fession, drawn  up  by  Melanchthon  and  ac- 
quiesced in  by  Luther  and  others,  regarded 
baptism  as  indispensable  to  deliverance  from 
punishment  due  for  original  sin.  Baptized 
infants  were  saved ;  the  unbaptized  were  con- 
signed to  perdition.  Gradually,  however,  the 
extreme  view  became  modified  and  softened, 
not  so  much  by  any  positive  doctrinal  state- 
ment as  by  a  gradual  permeation  of  the  mind 
by  the  gentleness  and  tenderness  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  First,  whilst  believing  that 
baptized  children,  dying  in  infancy,  were 
saved,  the  fate  of  the  unbaptized  was  left 
open,  the  Protestant   Confessions   making  no 


200    The  Child  and  Religion 

pronouncement  upon  the  subject.  Then  the 
churches  made  an  advance, — whilst  beheving 
as  heretofore  in  the  salvation  of  baptized 
infants,  they  tentatively  held  the  salvation  of 
all  children  of  Christian  parentage,  baptized 
and  unbaptized.  But  the  children  of  un- 
beUevers  and  of  heathen  lands  were  still  left 
to  perish.  Next,  in  proportion  as  the  con- 
ception of  God's  Fatherhood  and  Christ's 
Brotherhood  pervaded  Christian  theology  and 
experience,  the  idea  gained  currency  that  all 
children,  dying  under  the  age  of  responsibility, 
are  without  exception  heirs  of  salvation. 

The  prevalent  belief  now  is  that  no  one  is 
damned  except  for  personal  transgression.  No 
hell  for  original  sin.  Thereby  the  doctrine  is 
much  relieved  of  the  forbidding  aspect  it  at 
first  presents,  being  counterbalanced  by  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  which 
redemption  flings  back  its  healing  influence  to 
the  beginning  of  history  as  well  as  forward  to 
the  end  of  time  (Heb.  ix.  26).  This  teaching 
relieves  the  darkness  of  the  Fall  and  neutralises 


The  Conversion  of  Children   201 

many  of  its  dire  consequences.  Statistics,  it 
is  said,  prove  that  the  majority  of  men  born  in 
Christian  lands  die  before  reaching  the  age  of 
responsibihty ;  how  much  truer  is  it  of  bar- 
barous countries  ?  The  conclusion  is  therefore 
justified  that  the  large  majority  of  the  human 
race  are  already  saved.  As  Christianity  extends 
its  dominions  the  number  of  the  saved  will 
proportionately  increase.  It  is  not  the  few  who 
are  saved  and  the  many  lost ;  rather  the  many 
are  saved,  and  only  the  few — the  few  in  com- 
parison —  are  doomed  to  destruction.  The 
Divine  character  will  emerge  untarnished  out 
of  the  history  of  sin,  original  and  actual. 

II 

We  now  move  on  to  consider  Conversion  in 
its  relation  to  growing  boys  and  girls.  We 
have  seen  that  all  children  are  born  in  a  state 
partly  of  nature  and  partly  of  grace,  which 
means  that  evil  and  good  commingle  in  their 
hearts.  In  so  far  as  they  are  evil  they  are 
antagonistic  to  the  Divine  ;  in  so  far  as  they 


202     The  Child  and  ReUgion 

are  good  they  are  in  sympathy  with  it.  The 
question  now  fairly  confronts  us,  Do  they 
need  Conversion  at  all  ?  The  answer  without 
hesitation  is,  Conversion  is  a  change  absolutely 
necessary  in  all  sinners  alike,  be  they  young 
or  old,  moral  or  prodigal,  in  order  to  their 
salvation.  "  Except  one  be  born  again,  he 
cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (John  iii.  3). 
That  is  the  rule,  and  to  it  there  is  no  exception. 
Unless  converted  in  the  pre-natal  or  the  infant 
state,  conversion  in  the  growing  lads  and 
maidens  is  an  essential  condition  of  their 
salvation.  No  man  at  birth  is  left  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  his  inherited  evil  nature,  else 
the  human  would  sink  at  once  to  the  level  of 
the  demoniac.  Grace  has  intervened  to  secure 
in  the  initial  stage,  not  the  salvation,  but  the 
salvability,  of  the  race.  The  original  light 
was  not  allowed  to  be  wholly  extinguished  nor 
the  original  goodness  to  be  wholly  obliterated. 
Nevertheless  darkness  and  evil  are  the  pre- 
ponderating forces  unless  checked  by  dis- 
cipline, education,  and  especially  by  religion. 


The  Conversion  of  Children   203 

In  other  words,  human  nature  from  the  womb 
incUnes  uniformly  away  from  God  and  in  the 
direction  of  evil.  The  inclination  is  not  so 
much  as  it  might  be  ;  nevertheless  it  is  away 
from  the  perpendicular,  and  only  the  pre- 
venient  grace  of  God  keeps  it  from  lying 
prostrate  in  the  mire.  This  prevenient  or 
common  grace  does  not  suffice  to  reverse  the 
inclination.  How,  then,  can  that  be  done  ? 
How  to  secure  the  victory  to  the  good  over 
the  bad  propensities  ?  Manifestly  by  Con- 
version, the  result  not  of  the  common  grace 
in  which  all  participate,  but  of  the  special 
saving  grace  of  the  Gospel.  Now  what  is 
included  in  this  process  named  Conversion  ? 
Two  things,  as  already  shown :  setting  child 
or  man  right  in  his  objective  relations,  and 
setting  him  right  in  his  subjective  contents — 
justification  and  regeneration. 

(1)  Let  us  consider  the  grace  of  Justifica- 
tion, the  first  essential  of  salvation  in  all  sinners 
of  all  ages.  Children  are  not  saved  any 
more  than  grown-up  men  without  being  first 


204     The  Child  and  Religion 

justified.  This  presupposes  that  children,  Hke 
adults,  are  under  the  condemnation  of  the 
Adamic  sin  —  no  one  can  escape  from  the 
responsibilities  of  his  race.  Racial  unity  and 
solidarity  is  a  fact,  a  greater  fact  than 
individuality  and  multiplicity.  From  the 
personal  standpoint  objections  may  be  urged 
that  it  is  not  just  or  fair.  All  the  same 
the  fact  remains,  the  deepest,  stubbornest 
fact  in  our  history.  How  to  escape  the 
penalty  following  the  racial  guilt?  In  the 
case  of  babes  dying  in  infancy,  their  justifica- 
tion, we  have  seen,  is  automatic  in  virtue  of 
the  redemption  in  Christ  Jesus.  As  their 
guilt  is  racial,  not  personal,  so  the  descent  of 
the  Lord  Christ  into  the  race  by  Incarnation 
and  Atonement  suffices  to  cancel  the  guilt, 
that  is,  to  effect  their  justification.  But,  in 
respect  of  those  who  grow  into  boyhood  and 
girlhood,  in  whom  the  personal  element  plays 
an  active  and  important  part,  faith  is  an  in- 
dispensable condition.  They  must  be  justified 
by  faith.     But   can   children   believe  ?     It   is 


The  Conversion  of  Children   205 

children  who  can  believe,  and  if  men  of  mature 
age  are  to  become  believers,  it  must  be  by  the 
resumption  of  the  child  nature  (Mark  x.  15). 
All  children  believe  till  their  moral  nature 
receives  a  shock  by  the  discovery  of  falsehood 
in  the  circle  of  their  acquaintance.  Certain 
Christian  "gifts"  transcend  the  child-mind, 
but  the  Christian  "graces,"  each  and  all,  lie 
fairly  within  their  reach.  In  1  Corinthians  xii. 
St  Paul  enumerates  the  "  gifts  " — knowledge, 
power  to  work  miracles,  ability  to  speak 
with  tongues.  Then  he  specifies  the  "  graces," 
which  abide  always  in  the  Church,  and  ought 
to  be  the  possession  of  every  Christian  of 
every  age  and  condition.  "  Now  abideth 
faith,  hope,  charity,  these  three."  These 
graces  abide  after  the  gifts  have  vanished. 
The  gifts  are  the  accidentals,  the  graces  the 
essentials  of  Christianity.  Whilst  the  gifts 
have  always  been  the  possession  of  the  few, 
the  graces  may  be  the  possession  of  all,  of 
the  children  as  well  as  of  the  parents,  of  the 
illiterate   as  well   as   of  the   learned.     Youth 


2o6     The  Child  and  Religion 

is  pre-eminently  the  age  of  faith,  hope,  and 
charity.  Unbehef,  pessimism,  uncharitable- 
ness  belong  to  a  later  stage  in  our  upward 
path  ;  nay,  not  upward,  but  downward ;  not 
in  our  progress,  but  in  our  retrogression. 
Children  are  nearer  heaven  than  their  seniors. 

In  order,  however,  that  childhood's  faith 
may  be  Christian,  the  child -mind  must  be 
directed  to  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ. 
There  are  thousands  of  boys  and  girls  to-day 
justified  by  faith.  The  sense  of  guilt  and 
shamefacedness  in  the  presence  of  God  has 
been  removed ;  they  are  children  in  their 
Father's  house,  enjoying  the  liberty  and 
confidence  of  children.  They  are  strangers 
to  the  agony  of  conviction,  because  they  met 
God  in  Bethlehem  and  on  Calvary  before 
they  beheld  Him  on  Sinai.  Happy  they  who 
have  escaped  the  earthquake  I 

(2)  The  other  element  is  Regeneration.  The 
child-nature  is  beautifully  pourtrayed  by  the 
poets ;  one  would  almost  imagine  it  was  sin- 
less.    God  forbid  that  the  picture  should  be 


The  Conversion  of  Children    207 

tarnished;  but  loyalty  to  facts  demands  that 
it  should  be  stated  that  the  poets  present  only 
one  side  of  the  shield.  Vaughan,  the  Silurian, 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  describes  himself 
as  he  idly  played  in  sight  of  the  Brecon 
beacons : — 

Happy  those  early  days  when  I  shined  in  my  angel- 
infancy, 
Before   I    understood   this  place  appointed  for   my 

second  race. 
Or   taught   my   soul   to   fancy  aught  but  a   white, 

celestial  thought ; 
When   yet   I  had  not  walked  above  a  mile  or  two 

from  my  first  love. 
And,  looking  back — at  that  short  space — could  see 

a  glimpse  of  His  bright  face  ; 
When  on  some  gilded   cloud  or   flower  my    gazing 

soul  would  dwell  an  hour. 
And  in  those  weaker  glories  spy   some   shadows   of 

eternity ; 
Before  I  taught  my  tongue  to  wound  my  conscience 

with  a  sinful  sound. 
Or  had  the  black  art  to  dispense  a  several  sin  to 

every  sense ; 
But  felt,  through  all  this  fleshly  dress,  bright  shoots 

of  everlastingness. 

From  testimonies  such  as  this,  hasty  thinkers 
draw   the  inference   that    Conversion   in   the 


2o8    The  Child  and   Religion 

broad  sense  of  change  of  state  and  of  nature 
is  not  necessary  —  education  is  all  that  is 
required.  But  poetry,  though  containing 
truth,  should  never  be  the  basis  of  a  creed — 
we  must  look  upon  one  truth  in  its  relation 
to  every  other  truth.  •'  Bright  shoots  of  ever- 
lastingness."  But  they  were  only  "shoots," 
not  the  full-orbed  light,  shoots  which  pre- 
suppose the  darkness  through  which  they 
penetrate.  Social  amenities  under  the  loving 
care  and  approving  smile  of  parents  please 
with  the  bloom  of  innocence.  But  we  should 
never  forget  that  deep  in  the  subsoil  are 
deposited  seeds  of  evil,  which  will  presently 
sprout  and  work  their  way  upward  to  the 
light,  and  it  will  be  only  by  the  most  stringent 
supervision  that  they  will  be  prevented  from 
overshadowing  the  virtuous  growths,  and 
only  by  Divine  grace  in  regeneration  the 
seeds  themselves  will  be  destroyed.  Educa- 
tion may  mow  down  the  thistles  and  weeds ; 
regeneration  alone  can  uproot  them.  A  few 
theorists,   contemplating   human   nature,  say, 


The  Conversion  of  Children   209 

''  The  maid  sleepeth,"  and  believe  they  can 
prescribe  educational  remedies  that  will  restore 
her  to  wakefulness  and  health.  The  Bible, 
looking  at  it,  says,  "  She  is  dead,  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  sins,"  dead  in  its  relation  to  God 
and  holiness.  Social  virtues  may  live  and 
thrive ;  education  will  to  them  prove  helpful. 
But  love  of  God  and  holiness  cannot  be 
evolved ;  it  must  be  "  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  given 
unto  us." 

Seeing  that  pollution  is  propagated  by 
natural  generation,  cannot  goodness,  holiness, 
the  spiritual  life  be  transmitted  in  like 
manner  ?  If  evil  fathers  by  necessity  of 
nature  beget  wicked  children,  do  not  godly 
parents  by  the  same  necessity  beget  pious 
children  ?  It  is  a  knotty  question  and  difficult 
to  unravel.  But  to  those  who  accept  the 
testimony  of  Scripture  as  final  the  answer  is 
clear  :  No,  godly  parents  do  not  pass  on  their 
godliness  to  their  offspring.     Some  claim  that 

virtue,  like   vice,  runs   in   the    blood,  and   is 

14 


2IO     The  Child  and  Religion 

transmissible  by  generation.  That  there  is  a 
degree  of  truth  in  the  contention  is  certain. 
Assuredly  moral  qualities,  as  well  as  intel- 
lectual and  physical,  do  descend  from  ancestors 
to  posterity.  A  moral  resemblance  is  observ- 
able in  successive  generations  springing  from 
the  same  family  stock.  But  in  loyalty  to  Bible 
teaching  it  must  be  maintained  that  spiritual 
life  in  every  soul  is  the  direct  production  of 
the  Divine  Spirit.  "That  which  is  born  of 
the  flesh  is  flesh ;  that  which  is  born  of  the 
Spirit  is  spirit."  "Except  ye  be  born  from 
above  ye  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 
"  As  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He 
power  to  become  the  children  of  God,  who 
were  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of 
the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of 
God."  These  passages  declare  clearly  that, 
whereas  generation  is  of  man,  regeneration  is 
of  God. 

The  question,  however,  lurks  suspiciously  in 
many  a  mind :  Can  the  Spirit  regenerate 
children  ?     We   ask :   Why  not  ?      We   have 


The  Conversion  of  Children   211 

seen  that  He  can  regenerate  infants  without 
the  intervention  of  means.  What  is  to  hinder 
Him  to  effect  the  same  change  in  our  growing 
sons  and  daughters  by  the  use  of  means,  such 
as  the  New  Testament  sacraments,  the  estab- 
Ushed  order  of  Christian  ordinances,  and  school 
and  family  instruction  ?  Headmasters  of  our 
public  schools  declare  fearlessly  their  belief  in 
the  conversion  of  many  of  theu*  pupils,  who 
bear  witness  to  the  renewing  of  their  minds 
by  the  brightness  of  their  lives,  the  prompt- 
ness of  their  obedience,  and  the  subjugation 
of  their  corporeal  and  mental  natures  to  the 
requirements  of  the  moral.  That  the  precise 
date  and  place  of  their  conversion  cannot  be 
fixed  militates  not  a  whit  against  its  genuine- 
ness. The  change  may  be,  and  probably  is, 
gradual ;  and  the  gradualness  excludes  definite- 
ness  of  date.  In  the  public  discussion  of  this 
aspect  of  the  question,  an  aged  Welsh  saint 
delivered  himself  in  this  wise  :  You  know  such 
and  such  persons  who  follow  the  trade  of 
shoemaking.     They  were   apprenticed   to  my 


212     The  Child  and  Religion 

father.  They  can  fix  the  date  when  they 
started  shoemaking — all  was  entered  in  their 
indentures.  I  also  am  by  trade  a  shoemaker. 
If  you  ask  me  when  I  began  I  cannot  tell 
you,  for  I  was  brought  up  in  it.  But  though 
I  cannot  fix  the  date  of  my  apprenticeship, 
everybody  knows  I  am  as  good  a  shoemaker 
as  any  of  them.  Thus  with  true  godliness. 
St  Paul  could  fix  the  date  of  his  conversion, 
a  great  persecutor  that  he  had  been.  But  if 
you  inquired  of  Timothy  the  time  he  became 
a  Christian,  he  would  make  answer  :  I  cannot 
tell — I  was  brought  up  in  it.  But  he  was  as 
genuine  a  Christian  as  the  Apostle. 

(3)  The  question  still  remains:  What  can 
churches  and  parents  do  to  bring  about  the 
conversion  of  the  children?  Does  baptism 
truly,  really  effect  regeneration  ?  The  answer 
depends  upon  the  meaning  attached  to  the 
latter  term.  If  by  it  is  intended  that  the 
baptized  child  is  thereby  admitted  as  a  member 
of  the  household  of  God,  to  enjoy  its  privileges 
and  claim  its  rights,  the  answer  must  be  in  the 


The  Conversion  of  Children   213 

affirmative.  That,  it  is  contended,  is  the  sense 
in  which  the  word  is  used  in  the  baptismal 
service  of  the  Church  of  England, — ^not  as 
signifying  a  change  of  heart,  but  a  change  of 
condition,  the  translation  of  the  child  from 
the  world  to  the  Church,  from  the  power  of 
darkness  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Conse- 
quently, every  baptized  infant  should  be  con- 
sidered a  child  of  God,  and  trained  up  to 
the  privileges  and  responsibilities  of  his  high 
station.  By  the  very  rite  of  baptism  the 
child  in  his  external  relationship  is  no  longer 
a  child  of  the  devil  but  of  God,  a  rightful 
member  of  the  Divine  family.  By  baptism 
he  obtains  the  status  of  sonship  ;  it  is  another 
matter  whether  he  possess  the  spirit  of 
sonship. 

This  involves  two  things.  First,  that  the 
Church — any  church — by  the  administration 
of  baptism  undertakes  the  responsibility  of 
training  the  child  in  the  high  privileges  and 
duties  of  his  Christian  status.  Do  the 
churches   fulfil   their    obligations?     Secondly, 


214     The  Child  and  Religion 

that  the  child  should  be  often  reminded 
of  the  Covenant  privileges  to  which  he  was 
introduced,  and  the  noble,  exalted  duties  to 
the  performance  of  which  he  was  pledged  in 
baptism.  The  knowledge  of  their  status  in 
Christ  Jesus  will  awake  in  youthful  minds  a 
sense  of  dignity  corresponding  to  their  exalted 
position.  Does  baptism  find  its  proper  place 
and  function  in  Christian  instruction  ?  Have 
we  not  read  in  ancient  Church  history  of  a 
saint,  much  tempted  and  sorely  tried,  who 
recovered  his  stability  and  assurance  by  calling 
to  mind  his  baptism,  when  he  entered  into 
Covenant  obligations  to  God  and  God  entered 
into  Covenant  obligations  to  him  ?  Whatever 
was  doubtful  in  his  history,  his  baptism  was 
an  indisputable  fact  to  which  he  anchored 
himself,  and  as  a  consequence  his  faith  was 
steadied  and  his  hope  brightened.  Whatever 
befell  him,  he  knew  God  would  prove  faithful 
to  His  Covenant  obligations  in  baptism. 

Another  meaning,  however,  is  attached   to 
the    term    Regeneration,   namely,   an   inward 


The  Conversion  of  Children  215 

change  corresponding  to  the  outward,  the 
implantation  of  the  new  life  in  the  heart. 
Whilst  the  patristic  theologians  usually  give  it 
the  objective  meaning — adoption  into  the 
family  of  God — the  Puritan  and  Nonconfor- 
mist divines  ascribe  to  it  a  subjective  meaning 
— not  a  change  of  condition  but  a  change  of 
heart.  The  Church  of  Rome  uses  the  term  to 
cover  the  two  meanings ;  according  to  it  the 
child  by  baptism  is  made  objectively  and  sub- 
jectively a  child  of  God.  What  the  precise 
views  of  the  Church  of  England  are  it  is 
difficult  to  ascertain.  In  the  baptismal  service 
the  objective  interpretation  seems  to  occupy 
the  forefront,  that  by  baptism  the  child  receives 
admission  into  the  household  of  God.  But  in 
the  Articles  the  subjective  meaning  is  chiefly 
emphasised,  that  the  principle  of  the  new  life 
is  thereby  deposited  in  the  heart.  Doubtless 
if  the  rite  of  baptism  came  up  to  the  New 
Testament  ideal,  fulfilling  the  Christian  con- 
ception, the  two  meanings  would  coalesce, 
and  thus  form   a   complete,  full-orbed   truth. 


2i6    The  Child  and  Religion 

But  does  it  realise  its  ideal?  Are  the  con- 
ditions fulfilled  ?  Solid  facts  give  a  negative 
reply.  The  majority  of  the  baptized  grow  up 
in  utter  indifference  to  their  spiritual  interests ; 
many  drift  into  profligacy  and  shameless 
immorality,  giving  a  flat  contradiction  to  the 
dogma  that  they  were  renewed  in  the  inner 
man  in  the  ''laver  of  regeneration."  There 
is  a  birth  of  water  which  is  not  a  birth  of  the 
Spirit.  Alas !  that  a  sacrament  instituted  by 
the  Lord  Jesus  Himself  should,  having  the 
form  of  godliness,  lose  the  power  thereof. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  Christi- 
anity has  consecrated  children  by  their  admis- 
sion into  the  Church,  thereby  giving  them 
the  status  of  sons  and  daughters  in  the  Divine 
Household.  They  are  now  the  children  of 
God  in  a  sense  more  special  than  they  are 
the  children  of  their  earthly  parents.  God 
says  to  every  parent :  "  Take  this  child  and 
nurse  it  for  Me,  and  I  will  give  thee  thy 
wages."  This  has  revolutionised  the  whole 
conception  of  childhood,  and  invested  it  with 


The  Conversion  of  Children    217 

a  dignity  unknown  to  pre-Christian  ages. 
It  is  a  striking  fact  that,  whereas  most 
Christian  poets  hnger  with  loving  fondness  on 
their  early  experiences,  the  classic  poets  of 
Greece  and  Rome  hardly  make  any  allusion  to 
them.  They  seem  as  if  they  were  ashamed 
that  they  had  ever  been  children.  Why  this 
difference  ?  Is  it  not  that  in  times  anterior  to 
the  Incarnation  children  possessed  no  rights, 
and  therefore  had  but  few  joys.  Parents 
slaughtered  their  children  without  pity  or 
compunction.  So  extensively  did  this  cruel 
custom  prevail  that  Augustus  appealed  to 
fathers  to  spare  their  boys  for  the  sake  of  the 
State,  and  offered  rewards  for  the  observance 
of  his  entreaties.  Christianity,  however,  has 
made  childhood  sacred,  looking  upon  it  as 
the  period  most  amenable  to  ennobling  and 
sanctifying  influences.  Childhood  is  more 
salvable  than  manhood.  We  often  think 
otherwise.  If  children  had  grown  into  men, 
we  say,  we  see  how  they  could  be  saved. 
You    reverse    the    truth,    answers   the   Lord 


2i8     The  Child  and   Religion 

Jesus ;  it  is  easier  to  convert  children  than 
grown-up  men.  Instead  of  making  children 
men  in  order  to  be  saved,  men  must  be 
made  children.  They  are  not  to  grow  up; 
you  are  to  grow  down.  "Whosoever  shall 
not  receive  the  kingdom  as  a  little  child, 
he  shall  not  enter  therein."  Clearly  pro- 
bability and  observation  favour  the  Christian 
view.  If  two  hundred  trees  are  to  be  trans- 
planted, half  of  them  two  years  old,  and  the 
other  half  thirty  years  old,  with  which  would 
we  succeed  best  ?  Every  gardener  knows.  He 
will  transplant  one  hundred  trees  two  years  old 
and  not  lose  one  ;  but  of  the  thirty-years-old 
trees  one  half  will  probably  perish.  People  say : 
"  We  see  how  a  man  of  thirty  can  be  saved ; 
but  a  child — what  can  be  done  with  him  ? " 
The  chances  are  all  in  favour  of  the  child ;  he 
is  the  two-years-old  tree  transplanted.  And 
yet  the  illustration  is  not  four-square  with  the 
truth,  for  conversion  means  more  than  trans- 
plantation, denoting  not  only  a  change  of  situa- 
tion but  a  change  of  quality  in  the  tree.     From 


The  Conversion  of  Children   219 

overlooking  this  distinction  so  many  people 
in  theory  and  practice  dispense  with  the  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Relying  wholly  upon  educa- 
tion, they  mistake  the  refinement  of  culture  for 
the  new  life  of  regeneration. 

J.  CYNDDYLAN  JONES. 
Whitchurch,  Cardiff. 


VI 

THE  RELIGIOUS  TRAINING  OF  THE 
CHILD  IN  THE  CHURCH  OF 
ENGLAND 

When  the  question  is  asked,  What  training 
does  the  Church  require  to  be  given  to 
children  ?  it  is  not  very  obvious  what  answer 
can  be  returned :  for  there  are  no  rules  laid 
down  with  respect  to  a  matter  which  mani- 
festly lies  within  the  domain  of  domestic 
arrangement,  and  therefore  lies  outside  the 
range  of  ecclesiastical  regulation.  The  Church 
of  England  is  justly  averse  to  pushing  official 
action  beyond  the  limits  indicated  by  the 
necessity  of  securing  the  indispensable  ele- 
ments of  an  ordered  Christian  life.  In  this 
respect  the  Church  of  England  stands  in 
marked   contrast   to   the    Church    of    Rome. 

220 


In  the  Church  of  England      221 

The  difference  may  well  be  explained  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  former  as  required  to 
reflect  the  idiosyncrasy,  and  to  match  the 
needs  of  a  nation  distinguished  among  all 
nations  by  the  intensity  of  its  domestic  life, 
and  by  the  suspicion  with  which  it  regards 
all  approaches  of  external  authority  in  matters 
of  personal  or  private  obligation.  There  is 
properly  no  system  of  training  children  in 
religion  which  can  claim  the  authority  of 
the  Church  of  England,  but  there  are  certain 
broad  principles  on  the  subject  of  religious 
education  which  appear  to  be  assumed  by 
the  system  of  the  Church  itself,  and  which 
cannot  possibly  be  left  out  of  reckoning  when 
honest  and  thoughtful  members  of  the  Church 
of  England  set  themselves  to  answer  the 
practical  question  of  deciding  on  a  system 
of  religious  education.  It  will  appear  from 
a  calm  and  intelligent  appreciation  of  the 
principles  implied  in  the  Anglican  version  of 
Christianity,  that  the  tenacity  which  marks 
the  attitude  of  Anglicans  on  the  vexed  subject 


222     The  Child  and   Religion 

of  definite  Christian  teaching  as  an  integral 
element  in  the  education  provided  in  the 
State  schools  at  the  cost  of  the  national 
exchequer  is  not  fairly  explained  as  ar 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Anglican  clergj 
to  secure  for  themselves  an  undue  authoritj 
in  the  educational  arrangements  of  the  nation 
but  must  rather  be  regarded  as  the  logical 
and  necessary  consequence  of  the  principleis 
themselves.  That,  in  the  first  instance,  the 
championship  of  Anglican  principles  should 
be  undertaken  by  the  clergy  is  surely  neithei 
surprising  in  itself  nor  discreditable  in  the 
clergy.  Yet  the  recollection  of  so  obvious 
a  truism  would  alone  suffice  to  purge  oui 
educational  controversies  of  their  most  ex- 
travagant rhetoric  and  their  most  exasperating 
invective.  The  fault  lies  (if  it  be  a  fault) 
not  with  the  Anglican  clergy,  who,  in  theii 
zealous  advocacy  of  religious  teaching  in  the 
schools  are  but  doing  their  manifest  duty, 
but  with  the  Anglican  system  itself,  of  which 
they  are  the  constituted   and   recognised  re- 


In  the  Church  of  England      223 

presentatives.  In  this  paper  we  shall  attempt 
to  indicate  what  these  Anglican  principles  are, 
and  what  are  their  practical  applications. 


The   Church   of  England  is    an    orthodox 
Churchy   that    is,   it    accepts    the    version   of 
Christianity  which  is   the   tradition  of  Chris- 
tendom.    This  is  not  the  place  for   anything 
in  the  nature  of  a  theological  discussion,  but 
it  is  necessary  to  point  out  in  a  few  sentences 
how  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Church  of  England 
bears  on  our  present  argument.     What,  stated 
shortly,    is     orthodoxy    in    this    connection? 
It  must  be  answered   that   it  is  that   version 
of  Christ's   religion   which   is   based   on   that 
belief  as   to  His  Person,  which   is   currently 
called  the  Doctrine  of  the  Incarnation.     What- 
ever  differences  of  opinion  may  exist  among 
Anglican   Churchmen    as    to    details   of    the 
Christian  tradition  with  respect  to  the  Incarna- 
tion  (and   we    may     expect    that    with    the 
spread   of   critical   methods   of  interpretation 


2  24    The  Child  and  Religion 

among  the  clergy,  and  the  growth  among 
all  sections  of  religious  people  of  a  higher 
standard  of  doctrinal  sincerity,  there  will  be 
very  considerable  modifications  of  current 
belief  in  the  course  of  the  present  century), 
there  is  no  likelihood  at  all  of  any  change 
in  the  direction  of  an  undervaluing  of  what 
may  be  called  its  assurance  of  the  inherent 
dignity  and  goodness  of  human  nature.  The 
Christian  Church  has  parted  for  ever  with 
those  low  views  as  to  the  natural  depravity 
of  the  race,  which  have  coloured  so  deeply 
the  theology  of  Western  Christendom,  and 
still  confuse  the  religious  thinking  of  Chris- 
tians. There  is  a  well-known  passage  in  the 
writings  of  St  Irenaeus,  in  which  the  signi- 
ficance of  the  Incarnation  is  set  forth  in  terms 
very  germane  to  our  present  argument.  I 
avail  myself  of  the  late  Dr  Hort's  excellent 
rendering.  Writing  of  our  Lord,  this  ancient 
and  orthodox  father  thus  expresses  himself: 
"  Being  therefore  a  teacher,  He  had  likewise 
the   ages  of  a  teacher,  not  rejecting  or  tran- 


In  the  Church  of  England      225 

scending  man,  nor  breaking  the  law  of  the 
human  race  in  Himself,  but  hallowing  every 
age  by  its  likeness  to  Himself.  For  He  came 
to  save  all  through  Himself,  all,  I  mean,  who 
through  Him  are  born  anew  unto  God ; 
infants,  and  little  children,  and  boys,  and 
youths,  and  elders.  Accordingly,  He  came 
through  every  age,  with  infants  becoming  an 
infant,  hallowing  infants  ;  among  little  children 
a  little  child,  hallowing  those  of  that  very 
age,  at  the  same  time  making  Himself  to 
them  an  example  of  dutifulness  and  righteous- 
ness and  subjection ;  among  young  men  a 
young  man,  becoming  an  example  to  young 
men,  and  hallowing  them  to  the  Lord.  So 
also  an  elder  among  elders,  that  He  might 
be  a  perfect  Teacher  in  all  things,  not  only 
as  regards  the  setting  forth  of  the  truth,  but 
also  as  regards  age,  at  the  same  time  hallow- 
ing also  the  elders,  becoming  likewise  an 
example  to  them.  Lastly,  He  came  also 
even  unto  death,  that  He  might  be  the  first 

begotten  from  the  dead.  Himself  holding  the 

15 


2  26     The  Child  and  ReUgion 

primacy  in  all  things,  the  Author  of  life, 
before  all  things,  and  having  precedence  of 
all  things."  This  language  is  marked  by  the 
controversial  needs  which  it  was  designed  to 
satisfy,  but  it  is  in  itself  extremely  suggestive, 
and  sets  out  a  doctrine,  which  clearly  carries 
the  obligation,  to  everyone  who  accepts  it, 
of  treating  children  as  from  the  cradle  sacred, 
and  designated  as  the  subjects  of  religious 
influences.  A  Church,  organising  itself  on 
the  foundation  of  this  belief,  could  hardly 
acquiesce  in  an  educational  system  which 
appeared  to  rest  on  the  contrary  assumption, 
viz.  that  children  were  not  qualified  to  receive 
religious  instruction,  which  ought  to  be  post- 
poned until  a  later  stage  of  life,  when  their 
intelligence  would  be  greater  and  their  moral 
nature  more  developed.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  system  of  the  Church  has  faithfuHy 
reflected   the   Church's   belief. 


In  the  Church  of  England      227 

II 

The  Church  of  England  pi^actises  Infant 
Baptism,  following  in  this  particular  the 
example  of  all  the  ancient  churches  of 
Christendom,  and,  in  the  process,  pledging  its 
members  to  a  definite  and  exacting  standard 
of  duty  respecting  the  religious  education  of 
their  children.  It  cannot  seriously  be  disputed 
that  the  conception  of  Christianity  as  the 
religion  of  the  Incarnation  really  determined 
the  adoption  of  the  practice  of  baptizing 
children,  and,  it  may  be  observed,  that  St 
Irenaeus  is  the  exponent  of  the  very  genera- 
tion of  Christians  in  which  that  practice 
appears  to  have  become  normal  in  the  Church. 
Apart  from  the  standpoint  provided  by  that 
doctrine,  infant  baptism  was  on  many  counts 
objectionable.  It  seemed  but  little  consistent 
with  the  Pauline  notion  of  baptism  as  a  Divine 
cleansing,  given  in  response  to  repentance  and 
faith.  The  paramount  aspect  of  the  Sacra- 
ment as  publicly  certifying  a  religious  purpose 


22  8     The  Child  and  Religion 

to  profess  Christianity  in  the  face  of  an  hostile 
and  often  violently  persecuting  society  did 
not  easily  admit  of  an  administration  of  it  to 
irresponsible  and  unconscious  infants.  There 
was  apparent  reasonableness  in  TertuUian's 
protest  against  baptizing  children,  even  with 
the  guarantees  of  protection  and  instruction 
given  at  the  font  by  the  sponsors  or  sureties : 
"  The  Lord  says,  indeed,  Forbid  them  not  to 
come  unto  Me.  Let  them  come  then  while 
they  are  growing  up :  let  them  come  while 
they  are  learning,  while  they  are  taught  where 
they  are  coming :  let  them  become  Christians 
when  they  are  able  to  know  Christ.  Why 
does  an  age  which  is  innocent  hasten  to  the 
remission  of  sins  ?  There  will  be  more  caution 
used  in  worldly  matters,  so  that  one  who  is 
not  trusted  with  earthly  substance  is  trusted 
with  Divine." 

In  the  missionary  stage  of  the  Church, 
when  the  bulk  of  members  had  become  such 
in  adult  life,  and  when,  accordingly,  baptism 
was   almost  everywhere   bound   up   in   men's 


In  the  Church  of  England      229 

minds  with  the  decisive  act  of  repentance,  by 
which  they  broke  with  past  habits  of  sin, 
and  with  the  answering  grace  of  forgiveness, 
by  which  they  were  released  from  the  doom 
of  everlasting  punishment,  those  aspects  of  the 
Sacrament  in  which  the  responsible  action  of 
the  individual  is  paramount  naturally  seemed 
most  important;  but  as  Christian  families  multi- 
plied on  the  earth,  and  increasing  numbers  of 
people  grew  into  adult  life  within  the  salutary 
and  protected  enclosure  of  the  Christian  home, 
then  the  profounder  significance  of  the  Sacra- 
ment came  increasingly  into  view.  Holy 
baptism  was  seen  in  connection  with  the 
supreme  fact  out  of  which  the  Christian 
society  itself  had  grown,  the  Incarnation  of 
God  in  Christ,  and  became  a  public  and 
solemn  affirmation,  in  respect  of  every  baptized 
infant,  of  the  truth — ignored  and  denied  out- 
side the  Church,  but  none  the  less  of  universal 
significance — that  human  nature  is  intrinsically 
holy  and  immortal,  derived  from  God  and 
destined   for   God.     Theories   of  original   sin 


230     The  Child  and  Religion 

played  a  great  part  in  the  Augustinian  and 
post  -  Augustinian  theology,  and  they  have 
entered  deeply  into  the  thought  of  Christen- 
dom, but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  any 
essential  connection  with  the  Sacrament.  It 
is  not  primarily  as  sinners  that  infants  are 
baptized,  but  as  children  of  God  set  to  live 
in  a  world  that  ever  tends  to  forget  and 
desert  its  Author.  It  is  not  primarily  in 
order  to  escape  penalty  that  they  are  placed, 
at  the  very  start  of  life,  within  the  family  of 
the  Church,  but  in  order  to  assert  their  true 
dignity  and  their  immortal  hope.  What  is 
true  of  every  member  of  the  human  race  is 
here  owned  in  the  case  of  the  baptized,  and, 
from  the  first  beginning  of  their  natural  life, 
they  are  claimed  for  spiritual  uses  and  desig- 
nated as  potentially  Divine.  The  Catechism 
of  the  Church  of  England  opens  with  the 
broad  assertion  that  the  Christian  child  has 
already  a  definite  spiritual  status,  and  is 
already  committed  to  definite  moral  obliga- 
tions,  and   is    already   possessed    of    a  great 


In  the  Church  of  England      231 

spiritual  hope.     In   baptism   he  is  taught  to 
say  that  he  "  was  made  a  member  of  Christ, 
the   child   of  God,    and   an   inheritor   of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,"  by  which  it  cannot  be 
meant  that  the  Sacrament  conferred  all  these 
high  boons  upon  him,  for  by  nature  he  belongs 
to  that  human  race  which  is  "  gathered  up  *' 
and  revealed  in  its   native   divineness   in  the 
Son  of  Man,  but  rather  we  must  understand 
that    these    blessed    truths    (unsuspected    or 
unknown    or    denied    outside    the    Christian 
sphere)   are    explicitly   acknowledged    in    his 
case.     All   children,  baptized  or   not,   simply 
by  title  of  their   humanity,  are   members   of 
Christ,  children  of  God,  and  inheritors  of  the 
kingdom    of    heaven,    but    only    within    the 
Christian   society  are   these  characters  recog- 
nised  and   made   the   postulates  of  morality. 
Baptism,  then,  means  a  deliberate  acceptance 
of  that  estimate  of  the  origin,  function,  and 
destiny  of  mankind  which  is  implicit   in  the 
fact   of  the    Incarnation   of    God   in    Christ. 
It   matters   comparatively  little   whether  the 


232     The  Child  and   Religion 

administration  of  the  external  ceremony  be 
effected  in  infancy  or  be  postponed  to  a  later 
stage,  so  long  as  the  profound  and  wide- 
reaching  truth  symbolised  by  that  ceremony 
be  firmly  held  :  viz.  that  human  nature  as 
such  is  a  consecrated  thing,  and  that,  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave,  human  life  ought  to 
be  Christian. 

Ill 
Infant  Baptism  presupposes  a  Social  Con- 
ception  of  Christianity, — The  society  comes 
first  in  the  order  of  the  individual  Christian's 
religious  history.  The  Church  claims  him 
by  an  older  and  higher  authority  than  that 
of  his  own  personal  choice,  because  in  truth  the 
Church,  into  which  at  his  baptism  he  was 
admitted,  is  ideally  co- extensive  with  the 
whole  human  race.  Just  as  there  is  no  real 
possibility  of  such  extreme  individualism  as 
would  isolate  the  individual  from  the  common 
fortunes  of  mankind,  into  which  he  is  inexorably 
bound,  apart  altogether  from  his  own  will, 
by  the  very  law  and  covenant  of  human  life, 


In  the  Church  of  England      233 

so,  in  the  sphere  of  reUgion,  it  is  the  case 
that,  as  St  Paul  wrote,  "No  man  Hveth  to 
himself,  and  none  dieth  to  himself"  Probably 
no  serious  Christian,  of  whatever  denomina- 
tional description,  would  dispute  this  general 
proposition,  but  there  would  certainly  be 
much  need  of  careful  explanation  before 
justice  would  be  done  in  some  quarters  to 
the  specific  form  in  which  the  general  truth 
is  asserted.  It  is  mere  matter  of  fact,  which 
is  also  matter  of  familiar  knowledge,  that 
there  are  in  England  at  the  present  time 
two  distinct  modes  of  apprehending  the  uni- 
versally admitted  truth  that  Christianity  is 
essentially  social.  The  Nonconformists,  who, 
for  intelligible  reasons  which  lie  on  the  surface 
of  their  history,  have  an  extreme  suspicion 
of  ecclesiastical  organisations,  tend  always 
towards  an  exaggerated  emphasising  of  the 
individualistic  aspects  of  Christianity,  and  they 
seek  to  satisfy  the  claims  of  the  Christian 
society  (always  too  apparent  to  be  altogether 
ignored  by  any  whose  notions  about  religion 


2  34     The  Child  and  Religion 

are  fashioned  by  a  study  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment) by  recognising  a  mystic  or  spiritual 
fellowship  of  believers  on  the  one  hand,  and 
by  developing  an  intense  congregational  life 
on  the  other.  Anglicans  take  another  course. 
Holding  hard  to  the  primitive  models  of 
ecclesiastical  organisation  which  come  down 
from  a  distant  age,  when  the  external  unity 
of  the  visible  Church  was  an  unquestioned 
assumption  of  all  Christians,  and  bearing  the 
character  of  a  national  Church,  charged  to 
express  and  consecrate  the  apparent  and 
operative  unity  of  the  nation,  the  Church  of 
England  cannot  acquiesce  in  a  low  estimate 
of  the  claims  of  the  organised  society  of 
Christians  upon  the  allegiance  and  service  of 
the  baptized  Christian.  It  is  not  at  bottom 
an  exclusive  claim  on  the  part  of  the  episco- 
pally  organised  Church,  as  against  churches 
otherwise  ordered,  that  creates  the  practical 
difficulty  of  correlating  in  a  single  scheme 
the  interests  of  both  Anglicans  and  Noncon- 
formists (though  that  exclusive  claim  easily  ex- 


In  the  Church  of  England      235 

ploits  the  larger  argument),  but  rather  a  deep 
divergence  of  religious  standpoint,  explicable 
indeed  on  historical  grounds,  but  not  on  that 
account  the  less  intractable  as  a  factor  in 
politics.  Even  if  the  fiction  of  apostolical 
succession  were  cleared  out  of  the  contro- 
versy, which  is — in  the  phrase  of  the  Prayer 
Book — much  to  be  wished,  there  would  still 
remain  the  more  formidable  obstacle  to  agree- 
ment, which  arises  from  a  radical  difference 
of  theory  as  to  the  relative  importance  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  society  in  the  scheme 
of  a  rightly  ordered  Christian  life.  The 
Anglican  not  only  brings  his  child  to  baptism 
in  its  infancy,  but  he  thereby  places  himself 
under  definite  obligations  with  respect  to  its 
upbringing,  which  are  publicly  certified,  and 
in  their  fulfilment  superintended  by  the 
hierarchy.  The  exhortation  addressed  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  baptismal  service  to  the 
god-parents  is  really  an  authoritative  and 
careful  statement  of  the  Anglican  theory  of 
education,  and  as  such  we  adduce  it  here. 


236    The  Child  and  Religion 

Forasmuch  as  this  child  hath  promised  by  you,  his 
sureties,  to  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his  works,  to 
believe  in  God,  and  to  serve  Him,  ye  must  remember 
that  it  is  your  parts  and  duties  to  see  that  this  infant 
be  taught,  so  soon  as  he  shall  be  able  to  learn,  what 
a  solemn  vow,  promise,  and  profession,  he  hath  here 
made  by  you.  And  that  he  may  know  these  things  the 
better,  ye  shall  call  upon  him  to  hear  sermons,  and 
chiefly  ye  shall  provide,  that  he  may  learn  the  Creed, 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments,  in  the 
vulgar  tongue,  and  all  other  things  which  a  Christian 
ought  to  know  and  believe  to  his  souPs  health,  and 
that  this  child  may  be  virtuously  brought  up  to  lead 
a  godly  and  a  Christian  life,  remembering  always  that 
baptism  doth  represent  unto  us  our  profession,  which 
is,  to  follow  the  example  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  and  to 
be  made  like  unto  Him  ;  that,  as  He  died,  and  rose 
again  for  us,  so  should  we  who  are  baptized  die  from 
sin  and  rise  again  unto  righteousness,  continually 
mortifying  all  our  evil  and  corrupt  affections^  and 
daily  proceeding  in  all  virtue  and  godliness  of  living. 
Ye  are  to  take  care  that  this  child  be  brought  to  the 
Bishop  to  be  confirmed  by  him,  so  soon  as  he  can  say 
the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  be  further  instructed 
in  the  Church  Catechism  set  forth  for  that  purpose. 

Let  it  be  always  remembered  that  the  vast 
majority  of  the  English  people  have  been 
baptized  in  the  parish  churches,  and  that  they 
are  by  that  circumstance  placed  at  the  start  of 


In  the  Church  of  England      237 

their  lives  under  the  discipline  outlined  in  the 
baptismal  service.  It  is  not  for  one  moment 
forgotten  that  in  the  case  of  very  many  parents 
there  is  little  or  no  serious  understanding  of 
the  pledges  they  so  solemnly  give  at  the  font, 
with  respect  to  the  upbringing  of  the  infants, 
who,  on  the  faith  of  those  pledges,  are  there 
admitted  into  the  Christian  society,  but  it  is 
suggested  that,  when  an  attempt  is  made  to 
understand  the  attitude  of  the  Anglican  clergy 
on  the  subject  of  the  religious  teaching  which 
ought  to  be  provided  in  the  State  schools,  in 
which  the  mass  of  the  baptized  children  are  to 
receive  their  education,  and  which  are  main- 
tained at  the  cost  of  the  taxpayers  and  rate- 
payers of  the  nation,  some  consideration 
should  be  given  to  the  facts  of  the  religious 
situation.  If  we  examine  the  Church 
Catechism  which  is  set  out  in  the  charge  to 
the  god-parents  as  the  appointed  manual  of 
Anglican  training,  we  shall  find  that  the  same 
marks  of  wholeness  and  social  dutifulness  are 
paramount.     All   life   is   gathered   within    its 


238     The   Child  and   Religion 

scheme  of  teaching,  and  there  is  no  recognition 
anywhere  of  any  unfortunate  and  irrational 
distinction  between  the  religious  and  the 
secular.  The  situation  created  or,  to  speak 
more  exactly,  drawn  into  formal  recognition 
at  baptism,  is  the  foundation  on  which  the 
whole  scheme  of  morals  is  built.  Faith,  the 
Faith  in  God  as  He  has  been  revealed  to 
men  in  Christ,  the  Faith  into  which  the 
children  were  baptized,  and  which  they  are 
required  as  soon  as  they  arrive  at  years  of 
discretion  publicly  to  re-affirm,  forms  the 
religious  pre-supposition  of  moral  obligation. 
There  is  an  inevitable  and  an  inseparable 
connection  between  the  two-fold  duty  of  man. 
Duty  to  God  draws  in  its  train,  and  empowers 
with  the  most  august  sanctions,  duty  to  neigh- 
bour. Ambition  to  rise  in  society,  the  most 
natural,  and  therefore  the  most  legitimate, 
temper  of  those  who  are  living  in  a  free 
community,  is  chastened  and  commissioned 
by  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Government, 
marshalling   all  the   contingencies   of  human 


In  the  Church  of  England      239 

life,  and  through  its  circumstances  caUing 
men  to  the  service  of  the  Divine  Will.  It  is 
a  curious  and  melancholy  reflection  that  this 
truly  inspiring  conception  of  individual  fortunes 
has  been  twisted  into  the  most  damaging  of 
calumnies.  The  Catechism,  according  to  the 
legendary  version  of  its  doctrine,  is  supposed 
to  teach  the  duty  of  social  immobility,  and  to 
uphold  a  Christian  system  of  caste  worthy  of 
the  slaves  of  some  hereditary  despotism,  but 
repugnant  to  the  free-born  citizens  of  Britain. 
The  change  of  a  tense  from  the  future  to  the 
perfect  makes  but  a  trifling  alteration  in  the 
appearance  of  a  sentence,  and  very  little  in  its 
sound,  far  too  little  to  alarm  the  sluggish 
intelligence  of  the  multitude,  yet  it  revolution- 
ises the  sense.  To  teach  every  English  child 
''to  learn  and  labour  truly  to  get  his  own 
living,  and  to  do  his  duty  in  that  state  of  life 
unto  which  it  shall  please  God  to  call  him,"  is 
an  admirable  and  dignifying  thing,  always 
necessary  and  never  more  plainly  so  than  in  a 
society  such  as  ours.     To  alter  the  last  phrase 


240     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

into  "  unto  which  it  hath  pleased  God  to  call 
me  "  is  to  lose  the  point  of  the  teaching,  and 
to  expose  the  Church  to  the  gravest  miscon- 
ceptions. The  statement  of  the  Christian's 
duty  is  followed  by  the  admonition  to  prayer, 
which,  taking  the  Lord's  Prayer  as  a  text, 
provides  a  summary  of  the  subjects  of  Christian 
petition  which  (so  far  as  the  present  writer's 
knowledge  goes)  has  never  provoked  any 
unfavourable  criticisms  in  any  quarter,  where 
the  reasonableness  and  obligation  of  prayer  are 
allowed.  The  last  part  of  the  Catechism  is 
devoted  to  that  instruction  about  the  Sacra- 
ments which  forms  an  indispensable  element 
in  the  preparation  of  Confirmation  candidates, 
and  as  such  might  fittingly  be  reserved  for 
that  purpose.  If  this  were  agreed  to,  and 
the  religious  teaching  provided  in  the  State 
schools  were  limited  to  the  fundamental 
doctrines,  which  are  certainly  held  by  all 
varieties  of  orthodox  English  Christians,  and 
to  the  moral  obligations,  which  all  agree  to 
deduce   from   those   doctrines,  it   appears  not 


In  the  Church  of  England      241 

extravagant  to  think  that  (always  assuming 
sanity  and  goodwill  in  the  responsible  politi- 
cians on  both  sides  of  the  controversy)  an 
arrangement  might  be  reached  equally 
consistent  with  the  legitimate  demands  of 
democratic  theory  on  the  one  hand,  and  with 
the  irreducible  requirements  of  the  Anglican 
conscience  on  the  other.  When  the  principles 
of  Christianity  as  held  by  the  Church  of 
England  are  seriously  considered,  as  in  equity 
they  ought  to  be  considered  by  every  fair- 
minded  citizen,  who  desires  to  discover  a 
settlement  of  the  educational  question  which 
shall  be  lasting,  because  it  is  intrinsically  just, 
and  leaves  no  legitimate  desire  unsatisfied,  it 
will  be  found  that  at  least  four  conditions 
must  be  satisfied  in  the  education  w^hich  the 
conscientious  Anglican  can  approve  for  his 
children  in  the  State  schools,  to  which  he  is 
compelled  to  send  them. 

i.  The  System  must  be  in  Tone  and  Tendency 
Christian. — There  is  no  question  of  any  de- 
nominational colour,  which  probably  very  few 

16 


242     The  Child  and   ReUgion 

thoughtful  Anglicans  desire,  and  still  fewer 
think  consistent  with  the  necessary  conditions 
of  national  education  in  a  religiously  divided 
nation  such  as  ours.  Equally,  however,  there 
is  no  question  of  that  kind  of  undenomination- 
alism  which  is  known  to  possess  advocates 
among  the  more  vehement  sections  of  the 
Nonconformist  party  :  an  undenominationalism 
which  affects  a  lofty  indifference  to  all  forms 
of  religious  belief,  and  in  the  name  of  neutrality, 
under  colour  of  doing  an  equal  justice  to  all 
sects,  whether  Christian  or  non- Christian,  in- 
flicts on  all  the  most  injurious  of  insults,  an 
insult  which  is  the  more  hurtful  precisely 
where  religious  conviction  is  strongest,  and 
the  standard  of  morality  is  highest.  It  is 
no  doubt  true  that  no  connection  properly 
exists  between  a  man's  competence  to  teach 
most  of  the  subjects  which  are  commonly 
included  in  the  description  of  secular  educa- 
tion, and  his  religious  beliefs,  and  so  far  it 
is  plainly  reasonable  to  exclude  reference  to 
religious   beliefs   from   the   estimate    of   pro- 


In  the  Church  of  England      243 

fessional  competence ;  but  it  is  none  the  less 
true  that  there  is  all  the  difference  in  the 
world  between  the  tone  of  a  school  which 
is  Christian,  and  the  tone  of  a  school  which 
is  consciously  and  professedly  non-Christian. 
The  very  word  "  tone  "  carries  the  suggestion 
of  moral  habitudes  of  a  high  and  distinctive 
kind.  The  morality  of  the  English  people 
is  what  it  is  because  it  has  taken  shape  and 
direction  under  the  influence  of  Christ's  religion, 
and  to  divorce  moral  training  from  the  sanctions 
and  precepts  of  the  New  Testament  is  for 
English  people  to  take  a  leap  in  the  dark 
of  the  most  perilous  kind.  In  effect,  the 
attempt  to  exclude  Christianity  from  the 
educational  system  really  necessitates  one  of 
two  courses.  Either  the  attempt  will  succeed 
by  a  truly  disastrous  impoverishment  of  the 
whole  conception  of  education  as  hitherto 
existing  among  us,  or  the  attempt  will  break 
down  by  the  silent,  but  rapid  and  effectual, 
substitution  of  the  lower  morality  of  materialism 
for  the  discarded  but,  none  the  less,  higher 


244    The  Child  and  Religion 

morality  of  the  Gospel.     The  teaching  pro- 
fession  stands   at   the   parting    of  the   ways. 
The  greatest  aspect  of  that  great  profession 
is  that  which  is  least  professional,  and  (though 
this   will   seem   a   hard   saying  to   the   eager 
agitators  who  have  played  so  prominent  and 
so  mischievous  a  part  in  the  educational  politics 
of  the  last  few  years)  the  true  champions  of 
the  ideal  of  teaching  have  been  the  opponents 
of  that  extreme  undenominationalism  which 
has  often  paraded  as  the  genuine  security  of 
the   teacher's    liberty   and   importance.     This 
is  not  the   place  to  point   out   the   practical 
working  of  a  non-Christian  system  in  a  society 
constituted  as  ours,  in  which  for  great  sections 
of  the  people,  and  those  the  most  degraded 
and    morally    necessitous,    the    State    schools 
serve  the  purposes  of  the  home  and  of  the 
Church,  as  well  as  that  properly  assigned  to 
the   school.     Many  Anglicans  who,  in  order 
to  avert  what  in  their  eyes  would  be  a  very 
grave  misfortune — I  mean,  the  definite  accept- 
ance of  an  attitude  of  settled  alienation  from 


In  the  Church  of  England      245 

the  educational  system  of  the  nation — would 
strive  to  organise  for  themselves  some  provi- 
sion of  religious  teaching,  which  should  make 
amends  for  the  grave  defects  of  the  authorised 
and  compulsory  education,  would  not  venture 
as  patriots  to  embrace  the  risks,  which  they 
would  accept  for  themselves  as  churchmen. 
It  must  be  postulated  in  any  discussion  of 
the  practical  question  which  is  serious  and 
sincere,  that  there  is  no  real  alternative  to 
the  teaching  of  the  State  schools  for  the 
masses  of  the  people.  This  being  the  case, 
it  becomes  all  the  more  important  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  undenominationalism, 
which  can  never  be  accepted  by  conscientious 
Anglicans,  because  in  truth  it  is  inconsistent 
with  any  true  belief  in  Christianity  as  the 
Revelation  of  God,  and  that  insistence  on  the 
fundamentals  of  faith  and  morals,  commonly 
called  by  the  same  uncouth  term  "  undenomin- 
ationalism," in  which  all  orthodox  Christians 
must  be  assumed  to  be  agreed,  as  alone  suit- 
able for  inclusion  in  the  scheme  of  education 


246     The  Child  and  Religion 

which  is  to  match  the  requirements  of  a  nation, 
which  is  reUgiously  harmonious  but  ecclesiastic- 
ally divided.  If  it  be  further  asked  how  the 
Christian  character  of  the  State  schools  can 
be  secured  apart  from  the  unpopular  and 
discredited  method  of  imposing  religious  tests 
on  the  teachers,  it  might  suffice  to  answer 
two  things.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  existing  teachers  are 
thoroughly  representative  of  the  nation  in 
the  matter  of  their  religious  beliefs.  In  the 
ordinary  course  there  is  little  likelihood  of  any 
difficulty  arising  from  the  reluctance  of  the 
teachers  to  undertake  religious  instruction 
of  the  simple  and  fundamental  kind  indicated 
above.  In  the  next  place,  if  the  system  were 
definitely  Christian,  the  general  law,  which 
operates  in  all  employments,  would  certainly 
operate  in  that  of  teachers.  The  demand 
would  tend  to  produce  the  needed  supply. 
A  Christian  system  would  be  attractive  to 
religious  men  and  women,  who  now  may 
not  rarely  be  deterred  from  entering  a  pro- 


In  the  Church  of  England      247 

fession  which  seems  to  regard  with  suspicion 
and  something  Uke  settled  aversion  all  con- 
scientious conviction.  For  the  rest,  it  will 
hardly  be  contended  even  by  the  most  ardent 
advocates  of  secular  schools,  pure  and  simple, 
that  the  determining  factor  in  the  settlement 
of  the  educational  arrangements  of  a  Christian 
nation  ought  to  be  the  scruples,  however 
honourable  in  themselves,  of  individuals. 

ii.  The  System  must  include  Definite 
Christian  Instruction. — It  is  essential  to  the 
Anglican  conception  of  Christianity  that 
religion  should  be  normal  and  pervading.  To 
thrust  the  most  important  factor  in  education 
(for  nothing  less  than  this  is  the  position  which 
is  assigned  to  religious  teaching  by  those  who 
are  themselves  religious)  into  the  background, 
cutting  it  out  altogether  from  the  public 
system,  and  leaving  it  to  the  chances  of 
personal  concern  without  the  stimulus  of  ex- 
amination, or  the  precaution  of  competent  in- 
struction, is  to  degrade  religion  in  the  eyes  of 
the  children,  and  to  compromise  their  spiritual 


248     The  Child  and  Religion 

interests  in  the  most  serious  degree.  It  does 
not  appear  to  the  present  writer  that  AngHcan 
principles  are  in  the  least  inconsistent  with 
such  a  selection  of  the  precise  subjects  taught 
as  would  remove  any  fairly  objectionable 
denominational  colour  in  what  ought  to  be 
generally  acceptable,  and  he  is  the  more  con- 
fident on  the  point  after  examining  with  care, 
and  setting  in  comparison  the  Catechism  in 
the  Prayer  Book  and  the  very  excellent 
Catechism  drawn  up  a  few  years  since  by  a 
representative  body  of  Free  Churchmen.  The 
agreement  between  these  Catechisms  is  re- 
markably suggestive,  and  suffices  to  disprove 
at  once  the  silly  yet  persistent  contention  that 
there  is  no  logical  possibility  of  agreement 
between  Anglicans  and  Nonconformists  as  to 
the  elements  of  the  religion  which  both 
sincerely  hold  and  profess.  Add  the  fact  (which 
is  really  the  postulate  of  any  serious  attempt 
to  secure  effective  religious  teaching  in  the 
State  schools)  that  the  instruction  will  not  be 
given  by  the  representatives  of  any  particular 


In  the  Church  of  England      249 

denomination,  but  by  the  ordinary  staff  of  the 
schools,  and  the  most  apprehensive  of  Noncon- 
formists can  have  no  rational  ground  for  suspect- 
ing injury  to  his  sectarian  interests.  1  believe 
that  the  majority  of  Anglicans,  as  well  clergy 
as  laity,  would  be  wilHng  to  accept  the  Free 
Church  Catechism  almost  without  alteration  as 
the  manual  of  religious  instruction  to  be  used 
in  the  State  schools,  if  only,  by  so  great  a 
sacrifice  of  sentiment,  they  could  secure  the 
general  agreement  of  English  Christians  in 
support  of  what  they  must  needs  regard  as  a 
religious  principle  of  the  utmost  importance. 
So  only  the  character  of  education  as  Christian 
throughout  be  maintained,  and  the  inseparable 
connection  of  Christian  faith  and  Christian 
morals  be  secured,  there  is  nothing  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  Anglicanism  which  prohibits  the 
acceptance  of  any  practical  arrangements  which 
may  be  determined  upon  with  a  view  to  con- 
ciliating the  prejudices  of  any  section  of  the 
people. 

iii.   The   System    must    not  be   Anti-ecclesi- 


250    The  Child  and  Religion 

osticaL — Here  it  is  necessary  to  guard  against 
misconception.  It  has  been  already  pointed 
out  that  the  conception  of  Christianity  which 
the  Church  of  England  maintains  is  essenti- 
ally social ;  it  implies  that  Christianity  is  social 
in  the  same  sense  and  range  as  human  life 
itself,  for  Christianity  is  held  to  be  the 
raising  of  human  life  to  its  true  ideal.  This 
conception  of  Christianity  assumes  the  religi- 
ousness of  the  individual  from  the  very  start 
of  the  natural  life,  and,  normally,  that  is, 
when  the  circumstances  of  the  individual  are 
rightly  ordered  under  Christian  conditions, 
the  religious  development  proceeds  paji  passu 
with  the  natural.  Confirmation  follows  in 
due  course  upon  baptism,  the  consecration 
of  youth  succeeding  to  the  consecration  of 
infancy.  Holy  Communion  comes  as  natur- 
ally in  the  wake  of  Confirmation  as  manhood 
with  its  continuing  and  recurrent  responsi- 
bilities follows  the  brief  and  unencumbered 
period  of  youth.  From  start  to  finish  of  the 
natural  life,  the  consecrations   and   graces   of 


In  the  Church  of  England      251 

Christianity,  secured  and  imparted  in  the 
Christian  society,  are  at  hand,  moulding  and 
directing  all  to  nobler  than  merely  natural 
uses.  This  is  the  controlling  principle  which 
ultimately  determines  the  whole  attitude  of 
Anglicans  towards  the  training  of  the  young, 
and  there  will  be  little  probability  either  of 
justice  or  of  courtesy  in  educational  discus- 
sions until  non-Anglicans  take  it  into  account. 
There  appears  to  be  a  different  principle  at 
work  in  the  '^  rangements  of  Nonconformity. 
The  main  emphasis  seems  to  be  placed,  not 
on  the  intrinsic  goodness  of  human  nature  as 
demonstrated  in  the  Incarnation  of  God  in 
Christ,  but  rather  on  the  actual  badness  of 
men  as  they  are.  Hence  the  Nonconformist 
parent  is  comparatively  indifferent  to  the 
religious  aspects  of  infancy  and  childhood, 
and  rather  looks  forward  to  the  conversion 
of  his  child  in  due  course.  All  he  insists 
upon  in  the  system  of  State  education,  there- 
fore, is  that  it  shall  be  in  such  sense  neutral 
that  from  it  shall  proceed  no  hindrances   to 


252     The  Child  and  ReUgion 

the  process  of  conversion.  It  has  often  been 
observed,  and  I  am  constrained  to  say  that 
in  my  opinion  the  observation  is  just,  that 
Nonconformity  is  at  its  worst  when  deaUng 
with  children,  because,  embarrassed  by  its  own 
theory  of  natural  depravity,  it  has  no  other 
methods  of  treating  them  than  those  which 
have  been  found  to  be  effectual  in  the  case 
of  adult  persons,  most  of  whom  may  with 
fair  probability  be  addressed  as  actual  trans- 
gressors. Thus  children  are  exhorted  to  re- 
pentance with  all  the  terrifying  urgency  which 
revivalist  preachers  have  at  their  command,  and 
the  conversion  of  these  innocents  is  regularly 
announced,  and  made  the  occasion  of  much 
self-gratulation.  This  method  of  handling  the 
young  appears  to  be  irrational  in  itself,  ignoring, 
as  it  must  be  allowed  it  does,  the  plain  facts 
of  natural  development,  and  it  is  also  very 
unfortunate  in  some  of  its  consequences.  The 
practice  of  encouraging  and  employing  '*  boy- 
preachers  "  cannot  be  too  strongly  reprobated, 
both   in  the  interest  of  the  boys  themselves, 


In  the  Church  of  England      253 

who  are  thus  forced  into  a  degree  and  kind 
of  pubUcity  eminently  unfavourable  to  their 
healthy  development,  and  in  the  interest  of 
the  religious  public,  which  is  induced  to  yield 
exaggerated  importance  to  the  crude  and 
ignorant  vapourings  of  precocious  immaturity. 
I  would  not  be  understood  to  credit  with 
these  absurdities  the  serious  leaders  of  Non- 
conformity, who  are  in  some  cases  known  to 
disapprove  of  them,  but  I  adduce  them  in 
illustration  of  my  present  argument  because 
they  are  legitimate  consequences  of  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  Nonconformist  attitude 
with  respect  to  religious  teaching  in  the  State 
schools  has  been  determined,  and  they  exhibit 
in  an  extreme  example  the  dangers  against 
which  Anglicans  rightly  insist  upon  being  safe- 
guarded. I  ought  to  add  that  I  do  not  think 
there  is  any  necessary  connection  between  such 
teaching  as  that  excellently  set  forward  in  the 
Free  Church  Catechism  already  mentioned, 
and  the  extravagant  proceedings  I  have  just 
alluded  to,  but  that  these  are  strongly  rooted 


2  54     The  Child  and   Religion  | 

in  the  traditional  practice  of  Nonconformists, 
and  secure  the  support  of  many  who  would 
repudiate  the  theological  assumptions  on  which 
that  practice  ultimately  rests.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  Anglicans  may  fairly  claim  that  there 
shall  be  nothing  in  the  State  system  of  educa- 
tion which  would  facilitate  or  commend  this 
anti-ecclesiastical  tradition  of  Nonconformity. 
The  teaching  must  really  be  what  it  pretends 
to  be,  that  is,  undenominational  in  the  sense 
of  fundamental  and  elementary  Christian 
teaching. 

iv.  Finally,  the  Religious  Teaching  of  the 
Young  must  be  entrusted  to  Religious  Teachers, 
— The  very  wholeness  of  the  Anglican  concep- 
tion of  Christianity  prohibits  the  notion  that  an 
unbeliever  can  be  a  satisfactory  teacher  of 
religion.  The  religious  qualification,  as  we 
have  indicated  above,  ought  to  correspond  to 
the  character  of  the  task  required.  It  should 
not  be  denominational,  for  the  religious 
instruction  to  be  given  will  not  be  denomina- 
tional.    Accordingly  it  cannot  be  secured  by 


In   the  Church  of  England      255 

any  denominational  subscription,  nor,  if  it 
were  otherwise,  would  thoughtful  Anglicans 
care  to  revert  to  the  well-tried  and  thoroughly- 
discredited  method  of  subscription.  There 
remains  the  method  of  throwing  the  respon- 
sibility frankly,  where  it  must  ultimately  rest 
in  any  case,  on  the  conscience  of  the  individual 
teacher.  If  a  statutory  right  to  decline  giving 
religious  instruction  on  conscientious  grounds 
were  secured  to  every  teacher  in  the  State 
schools,  it  would  appear  that  every  equitable 
claim  from  the  side  of  the  teachers  had  been 
met.  Not  even  the  most  sensitive  advocate 
of  the  rights  of  the  individual  conscience  can 
seriously  claim  that  the  religious  convictions 
of  the  majority  of  English  citizens  ought  to  be 
sacrificed  to  the  fears  and  scruples  of  a  handful 
of  dissentient  teachers.  In  any  case,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  requirements  of  the 
Anglican  conscience.  No  sane  observer  of 
human  affairs  disputes  that  there  are  risks 
attaching  to  a  frank  dependence  on  the 
individual   sense   of    honour    where    material 


256    The  Child  and  Religion 

interests  are  even   suspected   to   be   engaged 
and,  therefore,  it  may  freely  be  admitted  thai 
there  will  always  be  an  element  of  uncertainty 
in  the  best-secured  system  of  religious  instruc- 
tion,  but   none   the  less   is   it  the   case   that 
human  nature  in  the  main  rises  to  the  appeal 
made  to  it,  and  that  if  Anglicans  are  to  insist 
on  securities  for  good  faith,  which  are  to  avoid 
dependence  on  individual  rectitude,  they  must 
needs  betake  themselves  to  another  world  than 
that  we  are  set  to  live  in. 

H.  HENSLEY   HENSON 

Westminster  Abbey. 


VII 

THE  RELIGIOUS  TRAINING  OF 
CHILDREN  IN  THE  FREE  CHURCHES 

In  contrast  with  the  method  which  Catholicism, 
Roman  or  Anglican,  adopts  in  the  religious 
training  of  children,  the  Free  Churches  have 
an  ideal  and  a  method  of  their  own,  which  it 
is  not  altogether  easy  for  an  outsider  to  com- 
prehend. The  Catholic  notion  is  to  surround 
the  child  from  the  earliest  period  of  conscious- 
ness with  sacramental  influences,  to  accustom 
the  mind  to  religious  impressions  before  they 
can  be  understood,  to  teach  religious  formu- 
laries and  articles  of  Creed  by  rote,  and  to 
enforce  by  authority  practices  which  are  not 
even  the  subject  of  discussio7i.  Travelling  in 
the   train  some  time  ago,  I  found  myself  in 

257  17 


258     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

company  with  two  little  children  who  had 
been  deposited  there  by  some  Anglican 
Sisters  of  Mercy.  The  children,  frightened  by 
the  tunnels  and  the  loneliness,  came  to  me 
and  climbed  upon  my  knee  ;  they  talked  in 
their  artless  way  of  all  their  belongings  and 
surroundings,  and  presently  the  little  maid — 
she  was  scarcely  more  than  ten — showed  me 
with  satisfaction  a  book  which  had  been  given 
to  her  by  the  Sisters  ;  it  was  a  guide  for  little 
Catholics  at  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  and 
the  object  was  to  impress  upon  the  tender 
and  unreasoning  minds  of  children  the  dogma 
that  at  the  words  of  the  priest  the  bread 
became  the  veritable  body  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  little  girl  had  no  notion,  of  course,  of 
what  was  implied,  but  her  glee  in  showing 
the  book  to  everyone  in  the  carriage  was  a 
sufficient  indication  of  the  method  adopted. 
That  is  to  say  the  method  is  formal  or  forma- 
tive, working  from  the  outside,  securing  a 
conformity  of  action,  a  verbal  assent  of  belief, 
and  a  general  religious  attitude  which,  being 


In  the  Free  Churches       259 

the  result,  not  of  reason  but  of  habit,  is  hkely 
to  survive  as  a  habit  in  defiance  of  reason. 

Now  the  Free  Church  conception,  quite 
apart  from  the  specific  teaching  thus  inculcated, 
would  not  sanction  the  method.  Our  view 
would  be  that  the  results  of  such  a  method 
are  not,  strictly  speaking,  religious  at  all.  The 
child  is  committed  to  a  parti  pris  before  it  can 
really  understand,  and  the  ultimate  choice  in 
the  decision  of  truth  is  prejudiced  for  it  from 
the  beginning.  I  know,  for  example,  schools 
which  are  entirely  under  the  influence  and 
indeed  are  the  property  of  Free  Churchmen, 
where  the  exclusion  of  sectarian  teaching  is  a 
fundamental  principle.  So  far  from  wishing 
to  indoctrinate  the  children  with  the  special 
views  of  Free  Churchmen,  the  managers  of 
these  schools  would  resent  the  intrusion  of 
any  sectarian  element,  though  it  should  be 
their  own.  It  is  very  difficult  for  those  who 
occupy  the  Catholic  standpoint  to  realise  this 
fundamental  conception  of  Free  Churchmen, 
and   the  conception  possibly  needs   some  ex- 


26o    The  Child  and  Religion 

planation  and  even  some  defence.  I  propose, 
therefore,  to  state  in  the  first  place  why  the 
recognised  Cathohc  method  seems  to  us  un- 
satisfactory, and  to  sketch  in  the  second  place 
the  methods  of  religious  training  and  instruc- 
tion which  we  adopt  or  wish  to  adopt  ini 
preference. 

1.   The  Reasons  for  shrinking  from  Dogmm 
Teaching  of  the  Young. 

Psychologically  the  human  mind  passes 
through  stage  after  stage  of  development, 
and  it  is  an  axiom  that  the  teaching  suitable 
to  a  later  stage  may  not  only  be  unsuitable, 
but  even  prejudicial,  to  the  mind  at  an  earlier 
stage.  To  attempt  to  give  the  minds  of  little 
children  the  dogmas  which  are  suitable  to  a 
fully  developed  intelligence  may  crush  andi 
stultify  the  budding  powers.  Doubtless  it  is 
easy  to  make  children  learn  by  rote,  but  to 
learn  by  rote  what  is  not,  and  cannot  be, 
understood,  is  not  educational  at  all.  To 
understand  a  very  little  and  to  remember  it. 


In  the  Free  Churches       261 

and  from  that  little  to  pass  on  to  more,  is  the 
only  way  in  which  the  mind  can  be  healthily 
developed.  This  point  need  hardly  be  argued, 
since  it  is  now  very  generally  admitted,  and 
no  wise  teacher  in  any  secular  department  of 
education  attempts  to  train  a  child  by  stocking 
the  memory  with  meaningless  formulae.  But 
a  child's  mind  cannot  normally  respond  to 
the  subtle  distinctions  and  the  rational  dogmas 
which  are  the  outcome  of  prolonged  and 
laborious  thought.  If  I  may  use  the  illus- 
tration which  is  already  to  hand,  no  child 
can  wholesomely  be  taught  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation.  Such  a  doctrine  is  the 
outcome  of  a  scholastic  philosophy  which  no 
child  can  understand.  The  idea  that  the 
bread  on  the  altar,  remaining  to  all  appearance 
bread,  is  yet  inwardly  transformed  into  another 
substance  and  has  become  a  proper  object  of 
worship,  is  so  subtle,  and  even  to  the  acutest 
intelligence  so  questionable,  that  to  present  it 
to  a  child's  mind  is  not  to  train  but  to  deaden 
the  mind.     In  fairy  tales  the  impossible  may 


262     The  Child  and  Religion 

be  contemplated  with  pleasure,  and  unexpected 
transformations  may  take  place  without  injury, 
because  the  convention  of  the  fairy  tale  is 
fully  grasped  by  the  child.  He  knows  that 
it  is  make-believe.  But  a  transformation  so 
mysterious,  so  contradicted  by  the  senses,  so 
questionable  to  many  of  the  sanest  and  most 
reverent  minds,  as  that  which  is  implied  in 
Transubstantiation,  can  only  be  commended 
to  a  child  as  a  tale  out  of  wonderland  ;  for 
practical  religious  purposes  it  can  have  no 
wholesome  effect. 

The  religious  ideas  which  can  successfully 
be  imparted  to  infants  and  young  children 
are  broad  and  simple.  Dr  du  Buy,  in  an 
intensely  interesting  study  of  comparative 
religion,  has  maintained  that  the  five  great 
religions  of  the  world,  Mohammedanism, 
Confucianism,  Christianity,  Buddhism,  and 
Vedantism,  represent  a  scale  of  religious  truth 
applicable  to  the  advancing  stages  of  human 
life.  Mohammedanism,  with  its  one  doctrine 
of  the  unity  of  God,  is  the  religion   of  the 


In  the  Free  Churches       263 

child ;  Confucianism,  with  its  practical  and 
worldly  ethics,  is  the  religion  of  the  boy ; 
Christianity,  with  its  supreme  doctrine  of 
love  to  God  and  man,  is  the  religion  of 
adolescence ;  Buddhism,  with  its  doctrine 
of  merit,  is  the  religion  of  later  life ;  and 
Vedantism,  with  its  dreamy  metaphysics,  is 
the  religion  of  old  age.  The  ingenious 
discussion  need  not  detain  us  here,  but  it 
serves  to  remind  us  how  specific  the  religious 
teaching  for  a  child  must  be,  and  how  essenti- 
ally different  it  is  from  the  religion  suitable  to 
maturer  years.  Of  course  it  may  be  said 
that  the  great  dogmas  of  the  Christian  faith 
are  so  broad  and  simple  that  a  little  child 
can  understand  them,  and  there  is  a  great 
element  of  truth  in  the  contention,  but  it  is 
only  the  broad  truths  and  not  the  detailed 
doctrines  that  can  be  grasped  by  the  childish 
mind.  The  great  attributes  of  God  naturally 
occupy  the  thoughts  of  little  children,  and 
some  of  the  acutest  things  ever  said  about 
the  mysteries  of  the  Divine  Being  have  come 


264    The  Child  and  Religion  f 

quite  literally  from  the  mouths  of  babes  and 
sucklings ;  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  are 
quite  intelligible  to  even  a  very  little  child, 
and  the  attraction  of  the  Gospel  narrative, 
so  long  as  it  is  not  marred  by  doctrinal 
subtleties,  is  often  irresistible.  The  idea,  too, 
of  the  Spirit  living  and  working  within  us 
is  so  much  a  matter  of  experience  that  the 
child,  even  at  the  beginning,  finds  the  sub- 
ject not  strange.  But  while  these  broad 
truths  are  intelligible  and  capable  of  making 
a  healthy  impression  upon  even  infant  minds, 
a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  will  only  introduce 
confusion,  and  may  lead  to  the  secret  germina- 
tion of  unbelief  For  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  is  a  daring  speculation  of  thinkers, 
and  is  only  justified  in  a  philosophic  atmo- 
sphere to  which  children  are  necessarily 
strangers.  Or,  again,  it  is  very  useless,  if  not 
hurtful,  to  cloud  the  child's  apprehension 
of  Jesus  by  the  attempt  to  explain  His  two- 
fold nature.  While  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels 
is  attractive  to  minds  that  love  the  concrete. 


In  the  Free  Churches       265 

the  Jesus  of  the  Creeds  is  attractive  only 
to  minds  that  can  live  easily  in  abstractions. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  go  further  into  detail. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  the  undogmatic 
method  of  the  Scriptures  seems  to  us  far 
more  suitable  for  the  training  of  the  children 
than  the  dogmatic  methods  of  Creeds  and 
Churches.  Indeed,  the  Bible  is  in  a  very 
curious  sense  a  children's  book.  The  method 
of  teaching  rather  by  tales  and  parables  than 
by  precepts  is  the  ideal  method  for  train- 
ing children.  The  book  feeds  the  imagina- 
tion, and  cultivates  the  moral  sympathies. 
It  evokes  faith,  in  the  first  instance,  towards 
God  the  Creator,  and  leads  the  mind  judi- 
ciously to  God  the  Father  through  Jesus 
Christ  the  Son.  It  avoids  definitions  and 
arguments,  relying  upon  the  Spirit  which  is 
at  work  in  every  human  being.  And  there- 
fore, while  imparting  Bible  knowledge,  any 
teacher  of  good  intention  can  hardly  fail 
to  convey  religious  truth  and  spiritual 
influence. 


266     The  Child  and  Religion 

The  truth  embodied  in  a  tale 
Will  enter  in  at  lowly  doors. 

Is  it  not  open  to  question  whether  the 
widespread  unbelief  among  the  adults  of 
Christendom  is  not  due  to  the  almost  universal 
practice  of  indoctrinating  the  children  with 
religious  dogmas  or  even  truths  which  they 
have  not  understood  ?  Why  does  religion 
seem  dull  to  so  many  grown-up  people,  while 
to  little  children  it  possesses  a  fascinating 
interest  ?  Surely  it  is  because  those  early 
years  have  been  wearied  with  the  inculcation 
of  statements  which  could  not  be  understood, 
and  religion  has  come  to  mean  for  the  man 
that  tiresome  and  perplexing  presentation  of 
things  which  were  remote  from  life  and  incom- 
prehensible, presented  to  the  child  as  religious 
instruction. 

The  Free  Church  view,  therefore,  is  an 
objection  not  so  much  to  certain  dogmas 
which  Catholicism  enforces  as  to  the  whole 
system  of  enforcing  dogmas  at  all.  Apart 
altogether    from    the    forms   and   ceremonies 


In  the   Free  Churches       267 

which  are  imposed  on  the  childish  body,  and 
without  questioning  their  value  as  years  go 
on,  we  cannot  but  feel  that  the  forms 
must  follow  on  the  feelings,  the  ceremonies 
must  be  the  expression  of  the  heart ;  and  to 
reverse  the  order  is  to  mis-educate  the  child. 

But  enough  has  been  said  upon  the  negative 
side.  It  is  more  important  to  sketch  the 
methods  by  which  the  Free  Churches  would 
seek  to  make  the  children  religious  ;  for  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  say  that  Free  Churchmen 
are  no  less  eager  than  Catholics  to  make  the 
children  religious  and  positively  Christian. 
Their  antagonism  to  the  Catholic  method 
arises  only  from  their  conviction  that  such  a 
method  does  not  produce  the  desired  results. 

2.   The  Ideal  and  Methods  of  Religious 
Training. 

There  are  two  points  which  may  be  regarded 
in  some  sense  as  distinctive  of  the  Free 
Church  view  of  religious  education.  The  first 
of  these   is   the   conviction   that   every   child 


268     The  Child  and  Religion 

must  be  born  again  of  the  Spirit ;  the  second 
is  the  importance  attached  to  the  teaching  of  j 
parents  and  the  influence  of  the  home,  in 
contrast  with  the  importance  elsewhere  at-1 
tached  to  the  teaching  and  the  atmosphere  of 
the  Church.  These  two  points  require  some 
elaboration,  but  when  they  are  understood 
they  explain  the  practical  attitude  of  Free 
Churchmen  towards  educational  problems. 

First,  then,  we  may  look  at  the  theory  that 
conversion  is  the  necessary  beginning  of  a 
Christian  life,  for  in  the  light  of  that  con- 
viction the  object  of  all  religious  training  is  to 
lead  the  soul  to  that  decisive  crisis  ;  and  apart 
from  that  decisive  crisis  all  religious  teaching 
will  be  ineffective.  The  Catholic  teaching 
insists  on  the  idea  that  conversion  is  produced 
in  baptism ;  "  Christian "  is  identical  with 
"  christened."  A  child  duly  christened  and  sub- 
sequently confirmed  is  treated  as  a  Christian 
who  merely  requires  instruction  in  the  ways 
and  practices  of  the  organised  Church.  But 
according  to   the   Free   Church   view,   to   be 


In  the   Free  Churches       269 

christened  and  to  be  Christian  are  distinct 
things.  To  be  christened  is  to  receive  the 
pledge  and  promise  of  a  Christian  training, 
and  especially  and  primarily  such  training  as 
will  lead  to  a  true  conversion  and  spiritual 
birth ;  but  it  cannot  be  assumed,  as  certainly 
it  cannot  be  proved,  that  the  spiritual  birth  is 
involved  necessarily  in  the  christening.  Con- 
version is  a  process  which  implies  consciousness  ; 
it  is  not  accomplished  in  our  dreams,  nor  can 
it  be  accomplished  for  us.  It  is  the  change 
which  takes  place  when  the  mind  responds  to 
Truth,  and  the  soul  responds  to  God.  To 
treat  anyone  as  converted  when  he  is  not 
is  to  induce  a  blindness  and  lethargy  of  the 
spirit  which  are  the  most  serious  obstacles  to 
conversion.  The  first  element,  therefore,  of 
religious  education,  is  to  recognise  that  the 
soul  has  to  be  awakened  and  the  personal 
response  to  the  Christian  verities  has  to  be 
secured.  In  a  word  the  new  birth  is  treated, 
not  as  a  form  or  a  convention,  but  as  a  fact  of 
the  spiritual   life.     Unless   and   until   it   is   a 


270    The  Child  and  Religion 

fact  in  any  given  soul,  little  is  accomplishedj 
towards  the  production  of  a  Christian  life. 

It  is  not  at  the  present  time  necessary  tc 
enter  into  an  elaborate  defence  of  the  fact  and  | 
the  nature  of  conversion.  Professor  James's 
GifFord  lectures  on  the  varieties  of  religious 
experience  may  be  said  to  have  established 
the  place  of  conversion  in  the  religious  life, 
not  only  for  religious  people,  but  for  all  serious 
thinkers.  It  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as 
unphilosophical  or  unscientific  to  expect  a 
revolution  of  the  inward  life,  and  it  cannot  be 
treated  as  extravagant  to  assume  that  a  true 
Christianity  is  always  and  everywhere  the 
result  of  such  a  revolution.  There  are  of 
course  souls  which  seem  to  us,  as  TertuUian 
phrased  it,  naturally  Christian,  and  in  their 
case  the  change  which  is  demanded  may  seem 
to  be  too  slight  to  justify  the  term  conversion ; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  these  are 
precisely  the  souls  that,  in  review  of  their 
religious  experience,  are  most  amazed  at  the 
conversion  of  which  they  have  been  the  sub- 


In   the  Free  Churches       271 

jects.  A  Bunyan  can  never  sufficiently 
admire  the  abounding  grace  which  transformed 
him,  "the  chief  of  sinners,"  just  because,  as 
everything  shows,  he  was  from  the  first  a 
sensitive  and  conscientious  soul,  one  who  might 
have  deserved  TertuUian's  designation.  The 
conversion  of  which  we  are  speaking  is  not 
merely  moral,  but  spiritual.  The  confusion 
between  the  two,  so  frequently  made,  is  the  chief 
cause  why  conversion  is  so  imperfectly  under- 
stood. It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  Nicodemus  was 
morally  sound,  and  even  virtuous  in  an  unusual 
degree,  but  it  is  to  him,  and  not  to  the  scan- 
dalous or  hypocritical  members  of  his  own  order, 
that  Christ's  truth  was  uttered.  "  Ye  must  be 
born  again."  To  be  born  of  the  Spirit  is  to 
begin  the  spiritual  life,  and  while  it  is  possible 
to  inculcate  ethical  principles  and  train  children 
in  virtuous  habits,  religious  instruction  in  the 
specific  sense  of  the  word  can  only  be  given  by 
the  spiritual  to  the  spiritual,  and  can  therefore 
only  begin  with  the  child  who  is  as  a  matter  of 
fact  and  in  spiritual  reahty  "  born  again." 


2  72     The  Child  and  Religion 

But  with  this  truth  is  bound  up  another] 
which  cannot  be  too  clearly  explained,  ie,A 
that  conversion,  or,  if  we  may  use  the  term, 
regeneration,  may  come  with  the  earliest] 
dawn  of  conscious  decision,  and  may  be 
developed  with  the  growing  life  of  the  child. 
No  one  has  succeeded  in  stating  the  inferior 
age-limit  of  that  mysterious  change.  Fre- 
quently little  children  of  three  or  four  years  of 
age  are  observed  to  pass  through  the  very  ex- 
periences adapted  to  their  tender  years  which 
are  recorded  in  the  case  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  A 
little  child  becomes  vividly  conscious  of  Christ 
calling  him  by  name,  is  stricken  with  the  sense 
of  guilt  which  his  childish  peccadilloes  would 
hardly  seem  to  justify,  and  turns  to  the  Cross 
and  its  redemptive  sacrifice  with  a  simplicity 
of  faith  which  proves  how  natural  God's  way 
of  salvation  is.  Where  these  early  motions 
of  the  religious  life  are  found  in  children,  it 
becomes  the  whole  object  of  religious  education 
to  keep  them  healthy,  to  foster  them,  and  to 
train  them  to  a  completeness  and  fulfilment. 


In  the  Free  Churches       273 

Jut,  it  may  be  said,  what  is  to  be  done  with 
children  in  whom  these  signs  of  grace  do  not 
ippear?      What   is   the    reUgious   instruction 
Suitable  to  them  ?     The  answer  perhaps  may 
)e  suggested,  that  moral  teaching  should  be 
constantly  and  carefully  given  ;   the  practice 
)f  goodness  should  be   suggested  by   correc- 
tion   and     by    example.       The     ethical    life 
^should  be  cultivated  in  the  best  light  of  our 
psychological   knowledge.     But   the   religious 
teaching  should   be   precisely   that,  and   only 
that,  which  is  calculated  to  lead  the  child,  of 
whatever    age   he  may   be,   to   that  personal 
choice,    that    spiritual    decision,    which    con- 
-Stitutes  the  new  birth.     If  it  were  established 
ithat  the  hard  dogmas  of  the  Creeds  and  the 
[Councils   induced    that    spiritual    change,    it 
[w^ould   be    desirable    to    instruct   children   in 
tthem.     But  experience  points  in  an  opposite 
[direction.     The  meat   for  strong  men,  so  far 
[from  nourishing  the  babe,  is   injurious  to   it. 
[The  elaborated  formularies  of  the  Church  are 

[a  bar  to  the  spiritual  change  that  is  desired. 

18 


2  74     The  Child  and  Religion 

On  the  other  hand,  explain  it  as  we  may,  th 
Bible,  taken  as  a  whole  and  studied  and  taugh] 
in  the  most  natural  way,  is  indued  with  tl 
singular  power  of  leading  souls,  even  veij 
young  souls,  to  conversion.  It  is  true  that 
heartless  and  unbelieving  teacher  may  rende 
even  the  Bible  futile,  but  any  honest  mine 
endeavouring  to  grasp  the  religious  ideai 
which  underlie  and  are  developed  in  the 
sacred  Scriptures,  and  presenting  these  ideas  ir 
a  form  that  the  child  can  understand,  and  ir 
which  he  is  interested,  is  knowingly  or  unknow- 
ingly doing  the  most  that  can  be  done  b} 
human  agency  to  bring  the  child  to  the  greal 
decision.  It  may  be  said  that  such  a  conten- 
tion assumes  a  supernatural  element  in  th^ 
Bible,  and  gives  to  it  an  importance  which 
cannot  be  assigned  to  any  other  literature. 
But  that  assumption  is  exactly  what  experience 
seems  to  justify.  It  is  only  when  the  instances 
are  carefully  collected  and  sifted  that  one 
realises  the  astounding  place  which  Scripture 
takes     in     the     conversion     of    souls.      The 


In  the  Free  Churches       275 


^ 


[(  Biblical  idea  seems  to  be  behind  every  word 
of  man  that  produces  such  an  effect,  and  in 

11^  an  immense  majority  of  instances  it  is  a 
Biblical  word,  a  definite  text,  which  flashes 
conviction  in  upon  the  soul.  These  accumu- 
lated evidences  cannot  be  shaken  by  the 
altered  methods  of  handling  Scripture  which 

IS  are  demanded  by  modern  research.  The  con- 
clusions of  criticism  may  be  conveyed  even 
to  young  minds  without  injury,  and  it  is  an 
advantage  to  forestall  possible  shocks  by 
familiarising  the  child  from  early  days  with 
what  may  be  called  the  modern  view  of  the 
Bible.  But  the  Bible  in  the  modern,  no  less 
than  in  the  older  acceptation  of  it,  is  an 
armoury  of  spiritual  weapons,  or  rather,  it  is 
a  fountain  of  spiritual  waters.  And  when 
every  correction  of  history  or  science  or 
thought  is  amply  allowed  for,  the  plain  and 
unmistakable  truths  of  Scripture  work  their 
old  effects  on  human  souls.  The  teacher's 
task,  if  he  intends  to  do  his  work  religiously, 
is  to  let  this  supernatural  power  play  on  the 


276    The  Child  and  Religion 

hearts  of  his  scholars,  to  open  the  fountan 
that  the  hving  waters  may  flow  to  the  thirsb 
souls,  to  open  the  armoury  that  the  weapon: 
of  the  warfare  may  be  eagerly  sought  and  gir 
on.  Where  the  teacher  fails  will  generally  b( 
in  not  realising  the  object  that  really  is  ii 
view,  and  in  forgetting  that  Scripture  is  taught 
not  in  order  to  secure  a  place  in  the  examina 
tion  lists,  but  in  order  to  effect  the  conversior 
of  the  children's  souls.  To  treat  the  Scripture 
lessons  merely  like  other  lessons  in  the  curric 
ulum  is  legitimate  enough,  and,  as  Professor 
Huxley  so  eloquently  urged,  the  Bible  oughl 
to  be  taught  to  every  English  child  as  th^i 
great  classic  of  our  literature,  and  the  mint  a 
our  noblest  speech ;  but  such  teaching  of  th 
Bible  is  not  necessarily  the  teaching  of  religioi 
and  to  speak  of  it  as  religious  instruction  is  a 
inappropriate  as  to  speak  of  the  inculcation  c 
dogmas  and  Church  principles  under  the  sam€ 
name. 

But    this    reflection,   with    all    it    impliei 
naturally  turns  our  attention  from  the  school 


1^ 

1 


I 


In  the   Free  Churches       277 

mo  the  home,  from  the  Church  teacher  to  the 

rst]j)arent,  from   the  merely  formal   religious  in- 

"mtruction,  the   nature   of  which  can  never  be 

^  idequately   guaranteed,  to   the   real   religious 

[instruction  which  can  and  must  be  given  by 

ii  chose  who  train  the  children  from  the  cradle, 

it  and  form  the  atmosphere  in  which  they  draw 

la  their  vital  breath.     In  the  Old  Testament  the 

oc  method   of  religious   instruction   is   that    the 

If  fathers  should  make  known  to   the   children 

the  things  that  they  have   learnt   from   their 

fathers.      Such   instruction   was   to   be   given 

continually,  not  in  set  form,  but  during   the 

ej  ordinary   occupations   of  the  day  —  morning, 

noon,  and  night  (Deuteronomy  iv.  9,  10 ;  vi. 

6-8  ;  xi.  19).     No  provision  was  made  for  the 

public  instruction  of  the  children,  because  it 

was  recognised  that  a  spiritual  law  can  only 

be  imparted  by  those  who  have  the  care  of 

children    from    their    infancy.      It    must    be 

taught  by  the  atmosphere  of  the  home,  and 

by  the  particular  directions  of  life,  as  occasions 

arise.     Theology  may  be  taught  in  the  schools, 


278     The  Child  and   Religion 

the  history  and  dogmas  of  religion  may  be 
taught  by  efficient  teachers,  but  religion  itself 
— the  spirit  of  it  and  the  application  of  it — 
can  be  taught  only  by  parents  or  by  those 
who,  in  the  training  of  the  young,  stand  in  loco 
parentis.  This  principle  of  the  Old  Testament 
was  never  abrogated  in  the  New,  and  never 
can  be  abrogated,  for  it  is  simple,  natural, 
and  eternal.  No  greater  disservice  was  ever 
done  to  religion  than  that  officious  undertaking 
of  the  Church  to  relieve  the  parents  of  their 
primary  duties.  The  Church  had  no  power 
to  impart  a  true  religion  to  infants  and  little 
children.  By  claiming  that  she  had  such  a 
power,  first  at  the  font  and  then  in  the  schools, 
she  weakened  the  responsibility  of  those  to 
whom  that  power  necessarily  appertains.  Her 
function  may  be  to  inculcate  on  parents  the 
parental  duty  of  teaching  their  children,  and 
even  to  instruct  parents  in  the  best  methods 
of  performing  their  task.  She  should  be  in- 
stant in  season  and  out  of  season  in  reminding 
every  father  that  he  is  by  the  very  nature  of 


In  the   Free  Churches       279 

the  case  compelled  to  teach  his  child  from  day 
to  day  the  laws  of  the  spiritual  life,  the  claims 
of  the  Christian  Gospel,  the  way  by  which  the 
claims  are  to  be  recognised  and  the  laws  are 
to   be   obeyed.      If  the   Church   succeeds   in 
rousing  the  father  to  a  sense  of  his  duty,  she 
has  succeeded  with  the  child.     But  if  she  has 
relieved  the  father  of  his  duty,  she  has  injured 
not  only  the  child  but  the  father  also.     Amid 
the  idle  clamour  that  has  filled  the  air  in  recent 
times  about  the  religious  education  of  the  chil- 
dren, this  primary  truth  has  seldom  or  never 
been  heard.     The   parents   are   ruled   out   of 
court,  the  Church  acts  as  if  her  function  were 
to  relieve  them  of  their  duties,  and  assumes 
that  if  she  does  not  teach  the  children  religion, 
religion  will   not  be  taught.     Of  what  value, 
we  may  ask,  was  the  religious  teaching  given 
by  the  Church  to  the  fathers  when  they  were 
children,  if  they,  when   they  become  fathers, 
are  incapable  of  teaching  their  children  ?     The 
only  method — so   the   genuine  Free  Church- 
man argues — by  which  the   educational  pro- 


2  8o    The  Child  and  Religion 

blem  can  be  solved  and  the  rising  generatioi 
can  be  religiously  trained,  is  that  of  remitting 
to  the  schools  the  function  of  general  anc 
secular  instruction  which  they  are  capable  oi 
discharging,  and  of  resuscitating  in  the  con- 
science of  parents  and  guardians  the  responsi- 
bility for  the  religious  training  of  their  children 
which  they  alone  are  able  to  give. 

At  present  the  father  weakly  thrusts  the 
responsibility  upon  the  mother,  and  is  generally 
unconscious  of  the  treachery  and  cowardice 
involved  in  the  action.  The  mother's  duty  is 
to  manifest  religion  to  her  child,  but  it  is  not 
her  specific  duty  to  teach  it.  "  The  fathers 
to  the  children  shall  make  known."  It  is 
small  wonder  that  boys  grow  up  with  the  notion 
that  religion  is  the  concern  of  women  and 
children  and  priests,  when  they  have  learnt 
the  little  they  know  from  such  quarters,  and 
have  observed  the  silence  or  possibly  the  scorn 
of  their  fathers  in  regard  to  the  highest  of 
subjects.  A  man  who  brings  a  child  into  the 
world  and  has  nothing  to  teach  him  concern- 


In  the  Free  Churches       281 

ing  the  meaning  of  life  and  the  destiny  of  the 
§(  soul  is  no  better  than  one  of  the  lower  animals. 
"  Like  a  beast  with  lower  pleasures,  like  a 
f  beast  with  lower  pains,"  he  treats  his  offspring 
as  the  mere  creatures  of  the  dead  earth  to 
which  he  himself  belongs.  The  father  is  as 
much  bound  to  train  the  child- soul  as  he  is 
to  feed  and  clothe  its  body,  and  when  once 
the  Church  begins  to  insist  upon  this  truth, 
and  when  the  State  declines  to  give  that 
religious  instruction  which  only  parents  can 
give,  every  man  will  wake  up  to  the  reality 
of  the  situation,  and  will  find  that  if  he  does 
not  teach  his  children  religion  they  will  go 
without  it,  and  that  to  leave  his  children 
without  it  is  to  inflict  on  them  the  cruellest 
wrong  that  man  can  perpetrate. 

But  it  may  be  argued  by  those  whose  minds 
are  imbued  with  the  ecclesiastical  prejudices  of 
a  thousand  years  that  religion  is  so  compli- 
cated and  difficult  a  subject  that  the  ordinary 
parent  cannot  be  expected  to  impart  it,  and 
that  a  class  of  specialists,  i.e.,  the  clergy  and 


282     The  Child  and  Religion 

clerically  trained  teachers,  must  be  employed 
to  supply  the  defect.  Here  we  put  our  hand 
on  the  root  of  the  whole  mischief.  Theology 
may  be  complicated,  but  religion  is  not.  The 
creeds  of  the  Church,  the  creation  of  specialists, 
may  require  specialists  to  explain  them,  but 
the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  is 
the  breathing  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Heavenly 
Father  on  His  children,  requires  only  the 
Spirit  to  teach  it.  The  sooner  we  realise  the 
simplicity  that  is  in  Christ,  the  better  for  our 
country  and  for  the  Church.  The  ethics  of 
the  Gospel  is  simplicity  itself,  for  it  is  all 
summed  up  in  one  precept,  "  Thou  shalt 
love,"  and  it  is  all  enforced  by  one  sanction — 
the  love  of  God  to  us.  God  loves  you  and 
you  must  love  God  and  love  men,  is  the 
whole  ethical  system  of  Christianity.  It  is 
taught  to  children  by  loving  them  and  by 
loving  God,  by  showing  to  the  children  what 
God  is,  by  the  human  love  manifested,  and 
encouraging  them  to  love  God  by  the 
human    love    elicited.      And    as    the    ethics 


In   the   Free  Churches       283 

of  the  Gospel  is  simple,  so  is  the  truth 
on  which  it  depends.  Indeed,  it  requires 
great     ingenuity     to     spin    the    complicated 

j  theology  and  the  confused  doctrines  out  of 
the  absolute  simplicity  of  the  Gospel  truths. 
To  say  that  a  man  cannot  teach  to  his  child 

i  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  is  to  say  that  he  is 
not  a  Christian  and  to  imply  that  he  is  some- 
thing less  than  a  man.  That  the  Invisible 
God  is  love ;  that  Jesus  Christ,  who  lived  a 
human  life,  a  life  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  is 
the  human  manifestation  of  the  Divine  Love  ; 
that  the  Spirit,  the  very  Spirit  of  God,  breathes 
in  all  our  hearts,  prompts  us  to  good,  warns 
us  of  evil,  teaches  us  the  goodness  and  the 
saving  power  of  Christ,  brings  us  in  prayer 
into  contact  with  God ;  that  because  God  is 
such,  and  His  revelation  is  such,  we  are  called 
to  love  and  obey  and  to  live  in  the  spirit  of 
this  creed  ;  that  the  Church  is  the  assembly 
and  congregation  of  those  who  thus  believe 
and  by  believing  are  born  again :  this  after 
all  is  the  summa  theologice,  the  whole  truth  of 


284    The  Child  and  Religion 


1 

and  I 


religion  that  has  been  imparted  to  mankind, 
this  every  father  who  beheves  it  can  impart 
to  his  Httle  child ;  he  can  make  the  child  feel 
its  truth  by  practising  it ;  and  the  child  will  be 
conscious  of  the  translucent  atmosphere  which 
such  a  truth  throws  around  the  home  and  the 
life.  These,  then,  in  brief,  are  the  principles 
which  Free  Churchmen  are  striving,  often  inar- 
ticulately enough,  to  realise  in  our  national  life 
and  in  our  system  of  education.  Recognising 
the  sincerity  and  nobility  of  the  Catholic  ideal, 
they  yet  are  convinced  that  it  is  not  defensible 
from  Scripture,  nor  justified  by  experience ; 
they  turn  back  to  Scripture,  back,  if  we  may 
say  so,  to  Christ,  in  order  to  assay  a  method 
of  religious  instruction  which  in  a  broad  sense 
has  hardly  received  a  fair  trial  hitherto,  but 
which,  so  far  as  it  has  been  tried,  has  been 
shown,  like  the  Gospel  of  which  it  is  a  part,  to 
be  "  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation." 

ROBERT   F.    HORTON. 
Hampstead, 


VIII 

BAPTISTS  AND   THE   CHILDREN 

The  design  of  this  essay  is  to  set  forth  the 
ideas  generally  prevalent  among  Baptists 
concerning  the  relation  of  children  to  Chris- 
tianity and  the  Christian  Church. 

As  Baptists  have  no  authorised  Creed  or 
Confession  of  Faith  to  the  maintenance  of 
which  they  are  pledged,  it  must  be  understood 
that  the  writer  alone  is  responsible  for  the 
opinions  herein  expressed.  At  the  same  time 
he  has  no  doubt  that  what  is  written  may  be 
accepted  as  representing,  with  a  fair  degree  of 
accuracy,  the  common  beliefs  of  the  com- 
munity to  which  he  belongs. 

That  such  an  exposition  should  find  a  place 
in  a  series  of  papers  dealing  with  "  The  Child 

285 


2  86     The  Child  and  Religion 

and  Religion"  is  perhaps  only  fitting,  since, 
on  the  ground  of  their  rejection  of  Infant 
Baptism,  a  prima  facie  reason  may  be  alleged 
for  supposing  that  Baptists  differ  in  some 
respects  from  other  Christians  as  to  the  proper 
religious  instruction  of  children,  and  as  to 
their  relation  to  the  Church.  Probably  the 
actual  difference  is  not  so  great  as  might  be 
imagined ;  at  least  so  far  as  the  Evangelical 
Free  Churches  are  concerned.  Those  churches 
are  marked  by  a  wonderful  agreement  in 
regard  to  the  fundamental  truths  of  the 
Christian  Gospel  and  the  beginning  of  the 
religious  life  in  the  human  soul.  Their  differ- 
ences of  conviction  about  external  rites  leave 
this  great  region  practically  untouched,  and 
it  may  be  gravely  doubted  whether  any  of 
the  Free  Churches  that  maintain  the  baptism 
of  infants  would  claim  on  this  ground  an 
advantage  over  the  Baptists  in  the  religious 
training  of  the  young. 

With  the  churches  that  not   only   practise 
Infant    Baptism    but    assert    the    dogma    of 


Baptists  and  the  Children    287 

Baptismal  Regeneration, — the  Roman  Cath- 
olic and  Anglican  Churches,  for  example, — 
the  case  is  different.  To  them  the  Baptist 
position  must  appear  dreadful  indeed.  They 
must  deem  the  children  of  Baptist  parents 
deprived  of  an  invaluable  spiritual  gift,  and 
far  less  likely  to  grow  up  Christians  than  are 
the  children  who  have  been  brought  to  the 
font  in  their  infancy,  who  have  been  ''  regener- 
ate and  born  anew  of  water  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  and  thus  "grafted  into  the  body  of 
Christ's  Church."  Did  the  doctrine  of 
baptismal  regeneration  indicate  the  normal  way 
in  which  the  Christian  life  begins,  nothing 
could  well  be  sadder  than  the  condition  of  the 
children  of  Baptists.  Their  disabilities  would 
be  unspeakable  and  their  spiritual  state  that 
of  the  heathen. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  at  length  into 
the  controversy  about  the  efficacy  of  the 
Sacraments  which  still  divides  Christendom 
into  two  great  parties.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that,  rejecting  Infant  Baptism  as  unscriptural 


288    The  Child  and  Religion 

and  injurious,  Baptists  disavow  and  repudiate 
the  dogma  of  Baptismal  Regeneration.  They  I 
do  not  beUeve  that  a  miracle  of  grace  is 
wrought  in  the  soul  of  an  unconscious  babe 
by  the  pouring  of  water  upon  his  face.  To 
speak  quite  frankly,  they  believe  that  the 
doctrine,  as  stated,  for  example,  in  the  Prayer 
Book  of  the  Established  Church,  is  as  repug- 
nant to  reason  as  it  is  destitute  of  the  sanction 
of  the  New  Testament ;  and  that  it  tends  to 
degrade  the  pure  religion  of  Christ  to  the 
level  of  magic  and  superstition.  What  is 
much  to  the  point  in  the  present  discussion  is 
that  the  theory  breaks  down  utterly  when  the 
appeal  is  made  to  facts.  If  baptized  children 
have  received  the  grace  of  spiritual  regeneration 
and  unbaptized  children  lack  that  grace,  there 
should  be  a  clear  manifestation  of  the  differ- 
ence in  the  life  and  conduct  of  the  boys  and 
girls.  There  should  be  as  marked  a  contrast 
between  the  character  and  behaviour  of  the 
baptized  and  unbaptized  as  there  is  between 
day   and   night.     But  no  such  difference  has 


Baptists  and  the  Children    289 

ever  been  traced.  The  baptismal  regeneration 
theory  does  not  work,  and  is  condemned  by  its 
failure.  Baptized  children  evince  no  clearer 
signs  of  grace  than  do  those  to  whom  belong 
only  the  "  uncovenanted  mercies  of  God." 

By  many,  perhaps  the  majority,  of  those 
who  observe  the  rite,  Infant  Baptism  is  re- 
garded, not  as  an  instrument  of  regeneration 
but  as  a  sign  of  dedication  to  God ;  and  its 
value  is  believed  to  lie,  not  in  any  effect 
wrought  at  the  time,  but  in  the  appeal  after- 
wards based  upon  the  act,  when  the  definite 
religious  instruction  of  the  child  is  begun. 
The  question  therefore  arises,  Is  there  not  a 
gain  here  which  the  Baptist  misses  ?  Is  not 
the  child  that  has  been  dedicated  to  God  in 
baptism  more  likely  to  respond  to  religious 
training  when  told  of  what  his  parents  did 
for  him  in  his  infancy  ? 

The  answer  is  that,  according  to  the  doctrine 

of  the  New  Testament,  baptism  has  a  particular 

use  and  significance,  and  from  this  it  should  not 

be  perverted.     It  is  "  an  outward  and  visible 

19 


290     The  Child  and  Religion 

sign  of  an  inward  and  spiritual "  experience.  It 
is  the  symbol  of  "  a  death  unto  sin,  and  a  new 
birth  unto  righteousness."  Its  pre-requisites, 
therefore,  are  Repentance  toward  God  and 
Faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

This  spiritual  significance  of  baptism  is  so 
gravely  important  that  it  ought  not  to  be  set 
aside  or  obscured.  But  it  is  set  aside  and 
obscured  when  the  rite  is  administered  to  infants 
in  whom  there  is  no  corresponding  spiritual 
reality  ;  and  any  supposed  good  secured  by 
using  baptism  with  a  meaning  different  from 
what  it  has  in  the  New  Testament  is  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  loss  involved  in 
such  obscuration.  Baptism  is  the  divinely 
appointed  sign  of  spiritual  regeneration ;  and 
to  use  the  sign  in  the  absence  of  the  thing 
signified  is  the  w^ay  to  invest  the  symbol 
with  an  utterly  fictitious  and  misleading  value. 

To  the  dedication  of  an  infant  to  God  by 
a  service  of  prayer  there  may  be  no  serious 
objection.  Godly  parents  naturally  seek  the 
blessing  of  the  Almighty  upon  their  children 


Baptists  and  the  Children    291 

and  upon  all  that  is  done  to  promote  their 
highest  welfare.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered 
that  any  formal  rite  of  infant  dedication  is 
attended  by  a  subtle  danger  against  which 
there  is  need  to  watch — it  is  the  danger  of 
supposing  that  the  actual  relation  of  the 
child  to  God  is  in  some  way  affected  by  the 
ceremony.  The  idea  that  the  spiritual  life 
of  the  child  is  secured,  or  directly  aided,  by 
such  a  service  is  scarcely  less  objectionable 
than  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration. 

Is  it  then  the  Baptist  belief  that  children 
must  be  allowed  to  grow  up  to  years  of 
adolescence,  their  "natural  depravity"  mean- 
while having  free  course,  and  that  only  when  the 
age  of  personal  responsibility  has  been  reached, 
efforts  should  be  made  to  secure  their  "con- 
version "  to  a  genuinely  religious  life  ? 

Probably  it  is  their  well-known  adherence 
to  "  Believers'  Baptism "  that  has  led  to 
Baptists  being  credited  with  this  theory.  It  is 
supposed  by  many  that  they  have  no  sympathy 
with  the  idea  that  the  religious  Hfe  of  children 


292     The  Child  and  Religion 


1 


should  be  developed  naturally  and  gradually 
from  their  earliest  years,  but  that  they  hold  a 
"  spiritual  crisis  "  to  be  essential  to  salvation, 
and  that  this  "  crisis  "  can  occur  only  at  an  age 
suitable  for  a  public  confession  of  Christ  in 
baptism.  Opinions  of  this  sort  are  attributed 
to  Baptists  by  Horace  Bushnell  in  his  sugges- 
tive treatise  on  ''  Christian  Nurture.'''  He 
writes : — 

"  It  must  be  presumed  either  that  the 
child  will  grow  up  a  believer  or  that  he 
will  not.  The  Baptist  presumes  that  he 
will  not,  and  therefore  declares  the  rite  [of 
Infant  Baptism]  to  be  inappropriate.  God 
presumes  that  he  will,  and  therefore  appoints 
it.  The  Baptist  tells  the  child  that  nothing 
but  sin  can  be  expected  of  him  ;  God  tells  him 
that  for  his  parents'  sake,  whose  faith  he  is  to 
follow.  He  has  written  His  own  name  upon 
him,  and  expects  him  to  grow  up  in  all  duty  and 
piety  "  {Christian  Nurture,  p.  40). 

It  would  perhaps  be  ungenerous  to  make 
too  much  of  a  sentence  which  may  have  been 


Baptists  and  the  Children    293 

written  in  the  heat  of  controversy ;  but  it  is 
amazing  that  such  words  as  these  should  have 
been  allowed  to  stand  in  the  printed  page. 
They  are  as  untrue  to  fact  as  they  are  un- 
worthy of  the  wise  and  fertile  teacher  whose 
name  is  deservedly  honoured  in  England  as 
in  America. 

There  is  nothing  in  Baptist  beliefs  that  may 
not  be  harmonised  with  the  theory  of  Bushnell 
that  children  should  be  "  nurtured  in  the  ad- 
monition of  the  Lord"  from  their  earliest 
years,  and  be  trained  with  the  hope  and  ex- 
pectation that  they  will  "  grow  up  Christians 
from  childhood,  never  knowing  themselves  as 
being  otherwise."  The  nurture  and  training 
of  young  children  may  be  a  means  of  grace 
and  salvation  as  surely  as  the  preaching  that 
is  addressed  to  adults.  Our  inquky  is  as  to 
the  way  in  which  such  training  can  be  most 
efficiently  carried  forward. 

We  start  with  the  profound  conviction  that 
the  little  ones  all  belong  to  God.     They  are 


294     The  Child  and  Religion 

His  children.  They  are  dear  to  Christ.  "  Of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  When 
they  die  before  reaching  years  of  responsibihty 
they  are  received  into  the  Father's  house  to 
develop  their  life  in  conditions  supplied  by 
infinite  love.  That  "  there  are  infants  a  span 
long  in  hell,"  as  was  affirmed  by  preachers 
in  past  times ;  that  "  many  non-elect  infants 
are  damned,"  according  to  Calvin's  decretum 
horribile ;  that  unbaptized  children  are  ex- 
cluded from  God's  mercy,  as  by  the  rubric 
of  the  Prayer  Book  they  are  shut  out  from 
Christian  burial — these  are  not  Baptist  beliefs. 
One  would  like  to  think  they  had  become 
incredible,  in  these  days,  to  all  sane  intelligence. 
Yet  children  need  Christian  training,  for 
this  reason  among  others,  that  they  have  a 
nature  prone  to  sin.  The  psychology  of  child- 
life  is  receiving  far  greater  attention  now  than 
formerly,  but  the  more  thoroughly  the  child  is 
understood,  the  more  clearly  the  fact  emerges 
that  he  is  a  creature  of  different  and  contrary 
tendencies.    As  Plato  says, ''  The  horses  of  the 


Baptists  and  the  Children    295 

soul's  chariot  pull  different  ways."  The  seeds 
of  evil  are  in  the  nature  of  the  youngest.  He 
is  not  an  angel,  but  a  human  being  with  a 
bias  to  wrongdoing.  This  bias  of  human 
nature  is  "  something  with  which  we  are  born, 
and  which  may  therefore  be  called  a  malign 
inheritance.  The  real  origin  of  this  sinful 
tendency,  like  all  other  origins,  is  wrapped 
in  obscurity,  as  is  also  the  precise  mode  of 
its  transmission.  .  .  .  All  we  know  about  the 
matter  is  the  fact  of  our  experience ;  and  all 
that  we  can  lawfully  infer  is  that  a  tendency, 
which  runs  throughout  all  history,  must  also 
have  obtained  in  the  prehistoric  past,  and 
therefore  be  universal"  (Illingworth^  Christian 
Character,  p.  13).  This  tendency  is  what 
theologians  call  "  original  sin,"  what  Browning 
calls  "the  corruption  of  man's  heart."  To 
shut  our  eyes  to  it  when  we  consider  the 
problem  of  Christian  training  is  to  ignore 
one  of  the  most  important  factors  of  the 
situation.  It  is  this  that  makes  the  nurture 
of  children  so  serious  a  business, 


296     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

But  this  sinful  tendency  is  not  the  onlj 
heritage  of  our  children :  they  have  a  dis- 
position to  goodness  as  well  as  to  badness ; 
a  beneficent  as  well  as  a  malign  inheritance. 
They  come  to  us  from  God,  who  is  their 
"Home"  and  their  Father,  "trailing  clouds 
of  glory,"  and  possessed  of  capacities  for  all 
moral  excellence.  They  are  not  wholly  bad, 
mere  bundles  of  depravity  and  heirs  of  wrath, 
— they  have  a  nature  that  is  akin  to  God, 
dormant  powers  that  may  be  trained  and 
developed  to  the  practice  of  noblest  Christian 
virtues.  They  are  born  into  a  redeemed  world, 
are  surrounded  and  played  upon  by  benign 
spiritual  influences,  and  are  illuminated  (who 
shall  say  how  soon?)  by  "the  true  Light, 
which,  coming  into  the  world,  lighteth  every 
man."  They  are  "  God's  nurslings,"  entrusted 
to  human  hearts  and  hands  that  they  may 
be  nurtured  for  Him ;  and  here  is  the  whole 
problem  of  child  training — How  may  the 
child  be  so  nurtured  in  the  chastening  and 
admonition     of     the     Lord     that     he    may 


Baptists  and  the  Children    297 

learn  to  cherish  and  develop  what  is  good 
in  his  nature,  to  restrain  and  subdue  what 
is  evil,  to  direct  his  will  and  choice  in  the 
right  way,  and  thus  grow  up  from  his  early 
years  a  true  servant  of  God  and  a  follower  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? 

Already  it  will  be  seen  that  to  the  question : 
When  should  the  religious  training  of  the 
child  begin  ?  no  very  definite  answer  can  be 
given.  There  is  no  trustworthy  guide  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  time  at  which  a  child 
receives  his  first  religious  impressions  and 
ideas.  They  are  given  and  received  uncon- 
sciously. They  come  imperceptibly  as  the 
dawn,  fall  quietly  as  the  dew,  and  are  no  more 
to  be  fixed  to  a  certain  date  than  is  the 
beginning  of  a  child's  self-consciousness,  or  his 
sense  of  the  love  of  his  parents,  or  of  the 
answering  love  and  trust  in  his  own  heart. 

Of  more  practical  importance  by  far  is  the 
inquiry:  What  should  the  nature  of  the 
tr^aining  be  ?  And  the  truth  to  be  remem- 
bered is  that  the  religion  of  a  child  should  be 


f  I 

298     The  Child  and  Religion 

suited  to  a  child's  nature  and  capacities  ;  its 
contents  of  the  simplest  and  most  elementary 
kind.  Sometimes  parents  and  teachers  fall 
into  the  error  of  making  their  own  religious 
experiences  and  beliefs  a  standard  for  the  little 
ones,  and  encourage  on  the  part  of  children 
emotions  and  language  appropriate  only  to 
those  of  riper  years.  This  is  to  do  unwhole- 
some violence  to  the  child-nature.  What 
should  be  encouraged  is  a  child's  religion,  not 
a  child's  imitation  of  a  man's  religion.  Almost 
invariably  it  is  through  the  child's  relation  to 
his  parents  that  his  earliest  lessons  in  religion 
are  learnt.  The  earthly  is  the  shadow  and 
symbol  of  the  heavenly.  The  love  and  care  of 
father  and  mother  are  the  natural  means  of 
suggesting  the  love  and  care  of  God  ;  and  the 
trust  and  obedience  growing  out  of  the  lower 
relationship  are  the  guide  to  what  is  needed  in 
the  higher.  As  Dr  Martineau  has  said,  in 
words  of  impressive  beauty :  "  The  lessons  of 
devotion  are,  for  a  long  time,  adopted  passively, 
with  listening  faith  ;  the  great  ideas  dwindling. 


Baptists  and  the  Children    299 

as  they  fall  from  the  teacher's  lips,  to  the 
dimensions  of  the  infant  mind  receiving  them. 
When  the  mother  calls  her  children  to  her 
knees  to  speak  to  them  of  God,  she  is  herself 
the  greatest  object  in  their  affections.  It  is 
by  her  power  over  them  that  God  becomes 
Venerable ;  by  the  purity  of  her  eye  that  He 
becomes  Holy ;  by  the  silence  of  the  hour  that 
He  becomes  Awful ;  by  the  tenderness  of  her 
tones  that  He  becomes  Dear.  That  the 
parents  bend,  with  lowly  look  and  serene 
result,  before  some  invisible  Presence,  is  the 
first  and  sufficient  hint  to  the  heart's  latent 
faith ;  which  therefore  blends  awhile  with  the 
domestic  sympathies,  simply  mingling  with 
them  an  element  of  mystery,  and  imparting 
to  them  a  deeper  and  less  earthly  colouring  " 
{Endeavours  after  the  Christian  Life,  vol.  i. 
pp.  5,  6).  The  earliest  thoughts  of  the  child 
concerning  God  and  Christ  are  doubtless 
crude, — all  his  early  thoughts  are  crude, — but 
from  the  crudest  beginnings  true  religious 
ideas   and   a   true   religious   life   may   be  de- 


300     The  Child  and  Religion 

veloped ;  and  thus,  through  wisely  directed 
parental  influence,  the  child  may  grow  up  in 
that  choice  of  good  and  rejection  of  evil,  in 
that  relation  of  reverence,  trust,  love,  and 
submission  towards  God,  which  are  the 
essential  elements  of  vital  religion. 

Of  the  Christian  truths  in  which  children 
should  be  instructed,  or  of  the  dogmatic  forms 
which  those  truths  assume  among  Baptists,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  supply  a  detailed  statement. 
Speaking  generally.  Baptists  are  heartily  at 
one  in  these  matters  with  all  other  Evangelical 
Churches,  and  the  Catechism  issued  by  the 
Council  of  the  Free  Churches  may  be  regarded 
as  an  accurate  summary  of  the  things  com- 
monly believed  by  them.  Yet  it  is  not  so 
much  by  means  of  catechisms  as  by  lessons 
drawn  directly  from  the  New  Testament  that 
it  is  sought  to  impart  Christian  ideas  to 
children ;  and,  above  all  else,  emphasis  is 
attached  to  the  life  and  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  Himself ;  from  the  conviction  that 
to  gain  a  clear  conception  of  His  character  and 


Baptists  and  the  Children    301 

an  accurate  knowledge  of  His  will  is  to  have 
the  best  possible  guide  to  the  Christian  life. 

The  religious  training  of  a  child  calls  for 
patience.  No  mistake  could  be  greater  than 
that  of  looking  for  ripe  results  at  too  early  an 
age.  Precocity  in  children  is  seldom  admir- 
able ;  precocity  in  religion  is  unnatural  and 
deplorable.  There  is  a  peril  that  those  who 
in  their  childhood  pass  through  what  may  be 
called  adult  experiences  will  suffer  for  it  in 
their  subsequent  life.  They  run  through  the 
whole  gamut  of  emotion  too  soon.  The 
forcing  process  robs  them  of  strength  and 
vitality  and  their  capacities  are  exhausted. 
They  have  little  power  of  growth  and  are  apt 
to  prove  sterile  when  fruit  is  expected.  In 
the  whole  subject  of  child  training  no  lesson 
is  more  important  than  this :  the  religion  of 
children  should  be  simple  and  suited  to  their 
years,  and  the  aim  should  be  to  foster  a  slow 
and  gradual  development. 

As  childhood  is  left  behind  and  adolescence 
begins,  some  change  may  well  be  made  in  the 


302     The  Child  and  Religion 

method  ;  for  now  the  critical  period  has  come, 
when  the  work  of  preceding  years  should  find 
its  consummation.  Recent  writers  on  the! 
psychology  of  religion  seem  to  have  shown 
conclusively  that  this  is  the  time  when  a 
personal  religious  decision  is  most  commonly 
reached/  There  is  now  awakened  in  the 
young  a  keener  self-consciousness ;  a  sense, 
too,  of  personal  duty  and  responsibility  ;  there 
is  a  turning  of  the  thoughts  outward,  an  in- 
stinct of  altruism,  of  subordination,  of  sacri- 
fice :  all  of  which  combine  to  furnish  a  pre- 
paration when  the  appeal  is  made  for  personal, 
intelligent  self-consecration  to  the  service  of 
Christ.  All  the  churches,  episcopal  and  non- 
episcopal,  provide  for  some  such  appeal  during 
the  years  of  adolescence — the  episcopal 
churches  by  the  rite  of  confirmation,  the 
non-episcopal  by  admission  to  church  member- 
ship and  first  communion,  the  Baptists  by 
the  ordinance  of  baptism.  And  whatever  the 
earlier  training   may   have   been,  it    is    most 

^  See,  e.g.,  Starbuck's  Psychology  of  Religion. 


Baptists  and  the  Children    303 

important  that  this  appeal  for  personal  de- 
cision should  be  urged  and  responded  to.  No 
care  and  attention  can  be  too  great  to  be 
bestowed  on  the  young  at  this  critical  period 
of  life,  when  nature  tells  of  a  break  in  the 
development  of  body  and  mind,  and  when  the 
soul  is  more  susceptible  and  responsive  than 
at  any  other  stage. 

To  some  it  may  seem  that,  in  what  has 
hitherto  been  said,  insufficient  regard  has  been 
had  to  the  work  of  God  Himself  in  Christian 
nurture  ;  but,  in  fact,  that  work  has  been  a  pre- 
supposition throughout.  The  Fatherhood  of 
God,  the  infinite  love  which  is  in  the  heart  of 
God  for  every  child  of  man,  is  the  surest 
guarantee  of  His  nurturing  ministries.  He  is 
the  real  Educator  of  the  children ;  they  are 
nearer  and  dearer  to  Him  than  to  any  human 
parent.  Our  part  is  to  be  His  "fellow- 
workers,"  and  what  has  been  attempted  in 
this  essay  is  to  trace  the  method  of  training 
which  is  most  in  accordance  with  the  divine 
plan   as  revealed  in  the  New  Testament  and 


304     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

in  human  life.  It  should  be  added  that  ifg 
theological  terms,  such  as  "  conversion  "  and  I 
"regeneration,"  have  been  avoided,  yet  it  is  I 
the  process  of  conversion  and  regeneration  that 
has  been  described.  We  have  learnt  to  inter- 
pret these  great  words  rather  differently  from 
the  way  in  which  they  were  interpreted  by  our 
fathers,  and  to  look  for  signs  of  the  process  in 
other  forms  and  over  a  wider  area;  but  we 
attach  no  less  importance  to  the  process  itself 
One  of  the  most  noteworthy  and  undeniable 
facts  of  modern  religious  life  is  that  vast 
numbers  of  those  who  are  received  into  our 
churches  have  no  story  to  tell  of  a  great  and 
sudden  crisis  through  which  they  have  passed  ; 
but  none  the  less  they  have  seen  the  evil  of  sin 
and  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and  have  turned 
from  the  one  to  reach  out  towards  the  other ; 
they  have  learnt  the  weakness  and  need  of 
human  nature,  and  have  begun  a  life  of  trust, 
obedience,  and  self-surrender  to  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  And  here  are  the  essential  and  abiding 
elements  of  religion  for  all. 


p  Baptists  and  the  Children    305 

The  question  scarcely  needs  asking :  On 
whom  does  this  solemn  work  of  child-nurture  de- 
volve ?  The  agents  in  doing  God's  will  are  first 
of  all  the  parents.  Their  responsibility  can 
never  be  evaded.  No  Christian  parent  would 
think  of  handing  over  the  duty  to  others,  even 
if  a  transfer  of  the  responsibility  were  possible. 
But,  supplementary  to  the  work  of  the  parents, 
the  Church  has  its  own  function  which  it  seeks 
to  discharge  through  its  Sunday  Schools  and 
its  Ministry ;  the  one  guiding  principle  being 
that  the  spiritual  work  must  be  assigned  to 
an  agency  possessed  of  spiritual  qualifications. 
To  Baptists  it  is  incredible  that  the  teaching 
of  religion  can  rightly  be  a  function  of  the 
State.  Their  contention  is  that  the  secular 
authority  should  do  its  own  work  in  giving 
secular  instruction,  and  should  leave  the 
religious  instruction  to  the  religious  agency. 
The  frank  acceptance  of  this  principle  would 
soon  bring  our  education  controversy  to  an 
end. 

In  the  light  of  this  exposition  it  will  be  seen 

20 


3o6     The  Child  and  ReUgion 


1 

sm  ■ 


how  easily  and  naturally  the  place  of  baptism 
in  the  religious  life  is  determined.  Baptism, 
on  its  human  side,  is  the  expression  of  a 
personal  decision ;  on  its  divine  side  it  is  the 
symbol  of  spiritual  regeneration ;  and  so  it  is 
rightly  administered  when  the  decision  has 
been  made  and  the  regeneration  effected. 
''Adult"  baptism,  it  should  be  said,  is  no 
part  of  Baptist  belief  or  practice.  Fitness 
for  baptism  and  church-membership  is  not 
decided  by  age.  Young  men  and  maidens  and 
even  children  are  welcomed  to  the  baptistery 
and  to  the  Church,  when  they  give  evidence 
of  their  allegiance  to  Christ.  And  it  should, 
in  all  fairness,  be  noted  that  any  supposed 
difficulty  in  discriminating  among  candidates 
for  baptism  is  shared  by  all  other  churches 
equally  with  Baptists  ;  since  the  same  question 
of  fitness  must  arise  in  regard  to  confirmation, 
or  such  other  ceremony  as  may  be  put  in 
the  place  which  baptism  rightly  holds.  To 
read  the  human  heart  and  pronounce  in- 
fallible judgment  on  human  character  is  im- 


Baptists  and  the  Children    307 

possible ;  to  accept  the  confession  of  faith 
and  discipleship,  and  to  welcome  the  young 
Christian  to  the  membership  of  Christ's  Church, 
is  a  privilege  and  duty  that  may  gladly  be 
undertaken. 

GEORGE   HILL. 

Nottingham. 


IX 

NEW  CHURCH  TRAINING 

The  training  of  children  in  the  New  Church 
is  viewed  as  necessarily  religious.  The  Lord 
is  the  only  Giver  of  their  life ;  and  He 
is  the  Father  of  all.  Every  child  is  His 
child. 

By  the  Lord  in  this  statement  is  meant 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  Jehovah 
incarnate  in  His  own  glorified  and  Divine 
Humanity.  His  grand  end  in  the  creation 
of  the  universe  itself  is  the  formation  of 
angelic  heavens  from  the  human  race  ;  and 
all  intermediate  causes  are  only  means  to 
accomplish  that  effect. 

When  God  said,  "  Let  us  make  man  in 
our   image,  after   our  likeness,"   He  gave  an 

308 


New  Church  Training      309 

order  for  the  spiritual  education  of  mankind. 
That  order  engaged  the  activities  of  angels 
in  the  spiritual  world,  and  equally  applied 
to  parents  and  teachers  of  children  in  all 
ages  of  this  world.  Strictly  speaking,  it  is 
never  we  who  educate  our  children  and  bring 
them  to  the  image  and  likeness  of  the  Lord. 
It  is  He  who  graciously  uses  us  as  His 
agents,  so  far  as  we  can  be  made  serviceable. 
In  the  very  essence  and  spirit  of  the  Sacred 
Scripture  are  the  great  underlying  principles 
of  a  religious  training.  Genesis  i.  introduces 
us  to  the  Divine  method  and  purpose.  The 
Law  and  the  Prophets,  taken  as  a  whole, 
supply  instruction  in  different  degrees  of  the 
Divine  truth,  and  also  treat  of  the  various 
states  of  human  minds  to  which  that  instruc- 
tion is  to  be  conveyed.  The  Gospels  and  the 
Revelation  carry  both  the  child  and  the  sage 
into  the  actual  Presence  of  the  supreme 
Teacher  Himself.  From  this  standpoint, 
which  is  Christian  and  Divine,  the  word  of 
God  is  indispensable    in    the    work    of   the 


3IO     The  Child  and  Religion 

religious  training  of  children.  It  has  lessons 
suited  to  the  teachers,  and  other  lessons 
especially  adapted  to  the  taught.  It  descends 
to  the  plane  of  infant  thought,  and  it  tran- 
scends the  wisdom  of  angels,  linking  heaven 
to  earth  and  man  to  God. 

One  of  the  important  statements  of  Sweden- 
borg,  lying  at  the  very  foundation  of  his 
doctrine,  relates  to  the  spiritual  structure  of 
the  initial  germ  from  which  a  child  is  evolved. 
In  spiritual  light,  it  is  in  the  form  of  a  tiny 
brain.  The  upper  part  of  the  structure  con- 
sists of  "contiguous  globules  or  spherules," 
and  each  spherule  is  itself  a  dense  cluster  of 
other  spherules  still  more  minute,  while  each 
of  these  again  is  in  its  turn  composed  of 
yet  other  infinitesimal  spherules,  which  are 
the  most  perfect  and  precious  of  all. 

Thus  in  the  vital  rudiment,  from  whence 
the  spirit  of  a  man  is  developed,  there  are 
three  degrees.  The  two  interior  degrees  are 
in  the  order  and  form  of  heaven,  and  are  thus 
the  habitations   of  life  from  the  Lord,  being 


New  Church  Training      311 

receptacles  of  His  love  and  wisdom.  But 
the  exterior  degree  is  in  direct  opposition  to 
that  order ;  and  in  it  reside  the  outer  cor- 
ruptions or  hereditary  evils  into  which  every 
man  is  born. 

In  accordance  with  this  fundamental 
doctrine  concerning  the  spiritual  structure  of 
the  germ  from  whence  the  child  is  evolved,  it 
is  understood  that  hereditary  evils  do  not 
extend  themselves  into  the  higher  degrees  of 
the  soul.  Those  superior  regions  within  the 
human  spirit  are  always  open  to  the  Lord ; 
but  they  are  not  opened  to  the  child,  nor  to 
the  man,  except  in  proportion  as  the  hereditary 
corruptions  of  the  outer  life  are  put  away  and 
order  restored  to  the  last  or  natural  degree. 

The  training  of  a  child  is  therefore  directed 
to  the  gradual  reduction  of  the  disorders  and 
evil  tendencies  resident  in  the  outermost  or 
natural  spheres  of  life.  This  can  only  be 
effected  by  slow  processes ;  and  by  moral 
prohibitions.  In  the  beginning  of  His 
Divine   Revelations  to   Israel,  the  Lord  first 


312     The  Child  and  Religion 

applied  the  precepts  of  the  decalogue,  in  which 
the  words  "Thou  shalt  not"  obtained  the 
pre-eminent  place. 

The  methods  by  which  the  Lord  averts  the 
influences  of  hereditary  evil  in  the  natural 
degree  of  a  child's  life  are  not  always  the  same. 
In  the  earliest  years,  they  may  be  said  to  be 
beautiful ;  but  they  differ  in  the  more  advanced 
stages. 

Primarily,  the  Lord  Himself  is  always  the 
Guardian  and  Protector  of  the  child's  life,  and 
He  never  consents  to  anything  that  could 
prevent  the  possibility  of  salvation  to  His 
little  ones.  He  is  nearer  to  them  than  any 
angel  ever  can  be :  for  His  Presence  is  actual, 
natural,  and  personal  to  every  child  instructed 
in  the  Christian  faith.  It  was  of  His  Divine 
love  to  say — "  Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  Me." 

''Every  infant  or  little  child,  let  him  be 
born  where  he  may,  whether  in  the  Church 
or  out  of  it,  whether  of  pious  or  wicked 
persons,   is   received   by   the   Lord   when   he 


New  Church  Training      313 

dies ;  .  .  .  and  is  imbued  with  affections  of 
good,  and,  through  them,  with  the  knowledge 
of  truth.  .  .  .  Afterwards,  as  he  is  perfected 
in  inteUigence  and  wisdom,  he  is  admitted  into 
heaven,  and  becomes  an  angel"  {Heaven 
and  Hell,  329). 

"  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  who  is  in 
the  heavens  that  one  of  these  little  ones 
should  perish  "  (Matt,  xviii.  14). 

But  the  Lord's  care  for  the  children  who 
remain  in  this  world,  and  grow  up  amidst  its 
dangers  and  snares,  is  not  less  than  His  care 
for  those  who  die.  He  is  as  much  with  the 
children  here  as  there.  Although  infants  in 
this  world  "  do  not  know  what  charity  is,  and 
still  less  what  faith  is,  nevertheless  the  Lord 
is  more  present  with  them  than  with  adults, 
especially  when  the  infants  are  in  mutual  love  " 
{A.  C}  1100).  During  their  early  years,  their 
"  communication  with  the  Lord  is  by  the  affec- 
tions only  " ;  and  by  that  means  the  exterior 
life  of  the  child  is  controlled  {A.  C.  1900). 

^  Arcana  Coslestia. 


314     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

It  is  provided  that  the  ideas  of  infants,  which 
are  gentle  and  innocent,  shall,  at  this  period,  be 
"  openable  even  to  the  Lord."  "  For  the  Lord 
inflows  in  an  especial  manner  from  the  inmost 
into  the  ideas  of  infants"  {A.  C.  2291).  Thus 
the  most  potent  of  the  early  influences  in  the 
process  of  forming  a  child's  mind  are  influences 
from  the  Lord  and  the  celestial  angels ;  and 
even  the  infantile  ideas  are — as  Swedenborg 
says—"  openable  to  the  Lord"  {A.  C.  2291). 

A  second  means  by  which  the  Lord 
counteracts  the  influences  of  hereditary  evils 
in  the  natural  degree  of  the  child's  spirit  is 
by  never  allowing  those  evils  to  become  active 
during  the  earliest  years  of  life.  "  From  his 
infancy  to  his  first  childhood,  a  man  is  intro- 
duced by  the  Lord  into  heaven,  and  in  fact 
among  angels,  through  whom  he  is  kept  by  the 
Lord  in  a  state  of  innocence"  {A.  C  5342). 
His  introduction  into  that  state  is  "in  order 
that  it  may  be  the  plane  for  all  other  states, 
and  the  inmost  of  them  all"  {A.  C.  3183). 
The  reason  why  it  is  impossible  for  evil  spirits 


New  Church  Training      315 

to  approach  infants,  or  to  excite  their  heredi- 
tary tendencies  to  evil,  is  "  because  they  have 
not  as  yet  anything  in  the  memory  that  evil 
spirits  can  put  on."  With  infants,  therefore, 
"  There  are  only  good  spirits  and  angels " 
{A.  C.  5857).  "Their  angels  do  always 
behold  the  face  of  My  Father  v^ho  is  in 
heaven"  (Matt,  xviii.  10). 

It  is  well  known,  however,  that  the  good- 
ness of  infantile  innocence  and  all  the  other 
good  affections  implanted  in  early  childhood  are 
devoid  of  external  fixity,  and  of  that  perman- 
ence which  only  belongs  to  established  habit, 
voluntarily  adopted  in  the  practice  of  one  who 
understands  and  chooses  for  himself  The 
innocence  of  infants,  who  are  in  ignorance, 
does  not  continue  much  beyond  the  fifth  year, 
or  it  changes  its  quality;  and  it  invariably 
passes  away  so  soon  as  the  hereditary  evils 
hidden  in  the  natural  mind  begin  to  arise. 

When  this  period  is  reached,  there  is  then 
evident  need  for  a  different  series  of  provi- 
sions, by  which  the  disadvantages  arising  from 


3i6    The  Child  and  Religion 

hereditary  evils  may  be  effectually  counter- 
acted. At  this  stage  our  Lord  not  only 
continues  the  protection  of  His  own  Presence, 
—  though  it  is  less  evident  —  but  He  also 
supplies  new  means  by  which  He  still  secures 
the  moral  freedom  necessary  to  human  life  and 
religious  principle. 

In  the  first  place.  He  "  indraws,"  and  stores 
up  in  the  interiors  of  the  child's  spirit  all  the 
good  affections  of  innocence,  kindness,  and 
peace  which  have  existed  with  the  child  from 
his  birth.  Whatever  good  has  been  before- 
time  divinely  insinuated  "  is  indrawn  towards 
the  interiors ;  and  is  there  kept  by  the  Lord, 
in  order  that  by  means  of  it  the  states  of  life 
which  he  afterwards  puts  on  may  be  tempered" 
{A.  C,  3793).  It  is  because  these  good  affec- 
tions are  thus  preserved,  and  remain,  that  they 
are  technically  called  "  remains.''  They  are 
not  acquisitions  obtained  by  learning,  but 
rather  living  gifts,  bestowed  upon  the  soul 
itself;  and  the  more  of  them  the  child  re- 
ceives, the   more   delightful  and  beautiful  do 


New  Church  Training      317 

the    states    of   childhood    appear   when    they 
return  to  him  in  after-Ufe  {A.  C.  1906). 

A  later  provision  by  which  the  Lord  averts 
the  dangers  due  to  hereditary  evils,  consists 
in  His  continual  government  of  the  child,  or 
the  youth,  by  means  of  particular  spirits  and 
angels,  who,  unconsciously  to  the  child  him- 
self, become  identified  with  his  mind  and 
memory.  "  The  same  spirits  do  not  remain 
at  all  times "  ;  but  they  are  changed  as  the 
states  of  the  child  or  man  may  change.  Such 
spirits  do  not  know  that  they  are  adjoined  to 
anyone  in  this  life  {A.  C.  5862) ;  but,  under 
the  Providence  of  the  Lord,  they  act  as  one 
with  the  child,  whilst  he  thinks  that  he  acts  of 
himself  alone ;  and  they  also  think  that  they 
act  of  themselves  alone. 

In  the  more  advanced  stages  of  childhood, 
when  temptations  arise,  this  identity  of  think- 
ing between  the  child  and  his  attendant  spirit 
or  angel  is  the  means  of  beneficent  rule ; 
because  by  this  means  the  hereditary  evils  of 
the  child  are  restrained.     By  his  identity  of 


3i8     The  Child  and  Religion 

thinking  with  particular  spirits,  who  are  afraid  j 
of  the  consequences  of  evil  actions,  the  child 
is  prevented  from  rushing  into  every  enormity 
that  would  arise  out  of  his  own  love  of  self  I 
and  gain.  By  means  of  the  mediate  inflow 
of  life  through  spirits  in  similar  affections  to 
his  own,  the  child's  freedom  is  preserved,  while 
yet  it  is  possible  for  the  Lord  to  turn  him 
away  from  evils,  to  amend  his  purposes,  and 
gradually  to  reduce  his  external  mind  to  an 
order  corresponding  with  the  order  of  heaven. 
It  is  because  the  child's  external  love  of  self 
is  hereditarily  "  altogether  contrary  to  heavenly 
order  that  he  is  ruled  through  spirits  and 
angels  from  the  Lord"  {A.  C.  5850).  This 
government  is  a  vital  part  of  the  child's 
spiritual  environment. 

The  final  means  of  counteracting  both 
hereditary  and  actual  evils  are  those  provided 
in  the  home  and  schools ;  and  among  them 
the  luord's  precepts  are  first.  But  the  appli- 
cation of  them  is  to  be  made  under  the 
provisions  by  which  the  Lord  has  secured  the 


New  Church  Training      319 

child's  moral  freedom  at  every  stage  of  his 
career.  He  is  never  to  be  deprived  of  the 
liberty  wherein  he  may  know  to  refuse  the 
evil  and  choose  the  good. 

Every  parent  is  therefore  justified  in  being 
re-assured  as  he  approaches  the  question  of 
his  own  part  in  the  training  of  his  child  ;  and, 
if  he  has  confidence  in  the  Lord,  he  may 
cheerfully  yet  seriously  ask,  ''  How  can  I 
best  help  in  the  preparation  of  my  child  for 
the  heaven  for  which  he  has  been  created  ? 
By  what  means  can  I  ensure  that  he  shall 
learn  to  shun  evils  because  they  are  against 
the  Lord  ?  How  can  I  best  teach  him  to 
flee  from  them  ;  to  obey  the  holy  precepts,  and 
to  delight  in  the  useful  and  the  good  because 
it  is  from  God  ? " 

To  these  questions  many  admirable  replies 
may  be  given ;  but  it  ought  to  be  recognised 
from  the  first  that  restraint  is  necessary  in 
the  making  of  a  man. 

The  Rev.  B.  Worcester,  of  Waltham,  Mass., 
has  illustrated  the  very  beginning  of  this  by 


320     The  Child  and  Religion 

reference  to  a  babe  sleeping  in  his  mother's 
arms.  The  mother  knows  that  he  should 
not  be  long  there  ;  so  she  smooths  his  pillow, 
and  lays  him  down.  He  cries ;  not  from 
discomfort,  but  for  the  warmth  and  luxury  of 
her  arms.  Being  a  wise  mother,  she  will  not 
easily  yield,  but  kindly  insists  on  his  lying 
down.  Aided  by  weariness  and  a  little  gentle 
pressure,  the  child  is  controlled,  and  sinks 
into  a  peaceful  sleep.  A  victory  is  gained, 
though  it  appears  very  slight.  The  child  has 
submitted  to  a  little  restraint ;  and  that  is 
vital  in  the  beginning  of  a  new  will. 

The  same  writer,  who  is  the  principal  of  an 
important  New  Church  school,  gives  another 
illustration.  A  child  "can  show  a  tooth  or 
two,  and  eat  a  cookie  " ;  but  he  sees  another 
in  his  sister's  hand,  and  he  thinks  he  can  eat 
two.  This  is  the  opportunity  to  teach  him 
that  the  whole  world  does  not  belong  to  him, 
and  that  he  must  respect  his  sister's  rights. 
The  lesson  may  tax  all  the  quiet  patience  and 
firmness  of  the  mother  ;  but   it   will   make  a 


New  Church  Training      321 

lasting  impression,  and  will  be  a  step  in  the 
making  of  a  man. 

If  such  discipline,  kind  yet  wise,  is  continued 
through  the  early  years,  the  first  part  of  the 
training  will  be  well  done ;  but,  if  it  is  not, 
the  child's  freedom  will  be  abused ;  and  he 
will  think  himself  at  liberty  to  be  as  selfish 
and  wicked  as  he  likes.  In  that  case,  he  is 
shaping  to  become  the  slave  of  his  own  evils, 
and  to  be  carried  into  spiritual  bondage. 

The  practice  of"  leaving  a  child  in  freedom  " 
is  in  many  cases  admirable  and  wise ;  but  it 
must  be  modified  by  considerations  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  freedom.  It  ought  never  to 
be  forgotten  that  infernal  freedom  is  quite 
opposite  to  that  heavenly  freedom  which  con- 
sists in  doing  one's  duty  from  a  religious 
principle,  and  thus  out  of  the  fear  of  sin- 
ning against  God ;  for  in  that  fear  is  love  to 
the  Lord  Himself  and  love  towards  the 
neighbour. 

Restraint  and  obedience  go  together.  To 
learn  obedience  is  to  restrain  self-love.     There 

Q^ 


322     The  Child  and  Religion 

is  no  justification  for  "  hoping  "  that  the  child 
will  restrain  himself  if  he  is  not  taught  to 
obey ;  and  led  to  look  beyond  the  seen  and 
temporal  to  the  unseen  and  the  Divine. 
There  is  an  old  rhyme  quoted  by  Mr 
Worcester  in  this  connection — 

The  infant  reared  alone  for  earth 
May  live,  yea  die,  to  curse  its  birth. 

The  first  period  of  a  child's  life  is  "from 
birth  to  the  fifth  year  "  {A.  C.  10,223) ;  but  "  the 
good  of  infancy  is  up  to  the  tenth  "  {A.  C. 
2280).  As  far  as  possible,  the  Lord  leads  by 
His  Divine  love  and  according  to  His  Divine 
vi^isdom.  He  is  the  Good  Shepherd  to  the 
child  ;  but  still  it  is  often  difficult  to  realise 
this  when  the  hereditary  evils  have  begun 
to  appear.  Sometimes  parents  can  see  no 
evidence  of  either  Divine  guidance  or  angelic 
ministrations.  On  the  contrary,  the  children 
may  become  so  provocative  of  displeasure  and 
pain  that  their  seniors  may  describe  them,  in 
the  rough  language  of  the  world,  as  "little 
devils,"  on  account  of  the  evils  that  begin  to 


^^^  New  Church  Training      323 

come  forth  and  ostensibly  defy  the  order  of 
heaven.  But  this  naughtiness  does  not  in 
any  way  detract  from  the  fact  that,  even  in 
those  rebelhons,  the  hoher  affections  of  heaven 
are  in  such  nearness  that  the  saddest  scenes 
of  human  perversity  may  be  speedily 
changed  for  the  honourable  and  beautiful,  if 
only  the  parents  or  teachers  do  their  part,  and 
the  lessons  of  restraint  and  self-control  are  well 
learned. 

The  order  of  a  child's  mental  development 
described  in  the  doctrine  of  the  New  Church 
is  that  in  which  sensuous  truth  is  the  first  to 
insinuate  itself.  Such  truth,  in  the  ordinary 
child,  consists  of  outward  facts  and  thoughts 
that  pleasantly  affect  him.  As  he  understands 
and  delights  in  the  natural  things  of  which 
he  has  become  cognisant,  he  becomes 
in  that  small  measure  scientific.  When 
he  learns  how  to  apply  facts  or  natural 
truths  with  some  measure  of  judgment, 
he  is  becoming  rational.  It  is  only  when 
he    regards  the    Lord   as    the   best   Teacher, 


324    The  Child  and  Religion 


1 


and  loves  the  Divine  ends  which  He  has  in 
view,  that  he  can  be  said  to  receive  something 
spiritual 

Swedenborg  writes :  "  From  his  infancy  to 
his  childhood,  a  man  is  merely  sensuous ;  for 
he  then  receives  nothing  but  earthly,  bodily, 
and  worldly  things  through  the  sensuals  of  the 
body ;  and  by  these,  too,  at  that  time,  are  his 
ideas  and  thoughts  "  {A.  C.  5126).  "  Regarded 
in  itself,  the  truth  which  is  learned  from  child- 
hood is  nothing  but  a  fit  vessel  into  which  the 
celestial  can  insinuate  itself"  {A.  C.  1496). 

The  influx  of  ideas  into  a  child's  mind  is 
never  from  the  outside.  His  ideas  of  lambs, 
cattle,  and  birds  are  not  derived  from  the  sight 
of  such  animals  ;  but  when  they  are  seen,  they 
provide  the  opportunity  for  the  inflow  of  ideas 
to  which  they  correspond ;  and  so  far  as  the 
child  is  able  "  to  apprehend  and  retain  "  those 
ideas,  so  far  communication  with  the  interior 
spirit  has  begun.  It  is  plain,  therefore,  that 
the  interior  mind  of  the  child  is  then  in  some 
measure  opened  {A.  C.  5126). 


New  Church  Training      325 

The  subject  of  ideas  is  so  important  in  the 
training  of  a  child  that  it  claims  further 
attention.  All  men  are  to  some  extent  alive 
to  the  great  advantage,  or  the  danger,  of  what 
are  called  "  ideas "  ;  and  it  has  been  noticed 
by  many  writers  that  an  idea  may  so  far  win 
its  way  into  the  mind  of  a  child  or  youth  as  to 
become  almost  masterful.  In  the  period  of 
the  "  teens,"  and  after,  it  is  often  found  that 
mischievous  ideas  have  obtained  what  appears 
to  be  an  independent  power, — a  power  of 
intruding  themselves  unbidden,  and  even 
against  the  young  man's  will.  But  the  truth 
is  that  the  oftener  an  idea  is  invited,  the 
greater  becomes  its  activity,  and  its  chance  of 
obtaining  a  paramount  place  in  the  affections 
of  a  youth.  Generally  speaking,  therefore, 
the  person  who  is  afflicted  by  the  assertive 
persistence  of  an  evil  idea  has  himself  to 
blame. 

In  the  training  of  a  child,  it  is  necessary 
to  adopt  means  that  the  central  and  supreme 
places    may    be    gained    by    ideas    that    are 


326     The  Child  and   Religion 

true  and  good.  In  very  young  children 
the  ideas  are  few ;  and  it  is  easy  to  find  a 
place  for  a  new  one.  Ideas  are  wanted. 
But  after  years  have  multiplied,  conceptions 
that  are  really  new  fare  very  differently. 
Consequently,  parents  and  teachers  should 
be  to  the  fore  with  those  that  are  the  most 
vital  and  most  useful.  Among  these,  the 
practical  truths  of  the  Christian  religion  come 
first. 

The  training  of  a  child  in  the  New  Church 
is  always  distinctly  theological  in  the  prac- 
tical sense  —  but  not  abstractly  theoretical. 
The  child  is  taught  that  the  Lord  is  actually 
present ;  that  He  is  Jehovah,  the  Lord  from 
eternity,  who  has  come  into  the  world ;  that 
the  Divine  Trinity  in  Him  is  represented  in 
man  by  the  soul,  the  body,  and  the  out- 
going energy;  that  "the  Father" — so  often 
mentioned  in  the  Gospels — means  the  "  Divine 
Good  "  in  Him  ;  that  "  the  Son  "  means  the 
Divine  Humanity  or  Glorified  Body  in  which 
He  is  to  be  approached ;  and  that  the  ''  Holy 


New  Church  Training      327 

Spirit"  is  His  virtue  and  operation  in  saving 
mankind.  The  effect  of  such  teaching  is  to 
present  Jehovah  God  as  the  one  Divine  Man ; 
and  it  is  intended  by  that  means  to  enable 
even  a  child  to  perceive  that  the  term  "  Son 
of  God"  can  be  understood  without  any 
family  sense,  and  applied  to  the  Humanity 
of  God  Himself. 

In  respect  to  the  place  of  Swedenborg,  the 
children  are  taught  that  he  was  a  prepared 
servant,  through  whose  instrumentality  the 
Lord  gave  to  the  world  a  knowledge  of  the 
Internal  Sense  of  Holy  Scripture,  the  laws 
of  Divine  interpretation,  and  the  Christian 
Doctrine  as  it  is  understood  and  received  by 
angels  in  heaven.  Swedenborg  is  never  more 
than  the  Lord's  servant  and  scribe.  It  was 
the  Lord  Himself,  not  Swedenborg,  who 
alone  was  able  to  "take  the  book  and  to 
loose  the  seals  thereof."  Nor  are  the  children 
ever  taught  to  call  the  New  Church  "  Sweden- 
borgian."  On  the  contrary,  the  name  of 
Christian  is  alone  acknowledged. 


328     The  Child  and  Religion 

In  the  education  given  to  children,  the 
place  of  Holy  Scripture  is  never  surrendered 
to  any  other  book.  It  is  held  to  be  of 
Divine  origin,  and  to  contain  in  itself  the 
fulness  of  celestial  and  spiritual  truths. 

"  All  the  historicals  of  the  Word  are  truths 
somewhat  remote  from  Divine  teachings 
themselves,  but  still  they  are  of  service  to 
infants  and  children,  in  order  to  introduce 
them  into  the  interior  teachings  of  truths  and 
good  by  degrees,  and  at  length  into  the 
essential  Divine  teachings"  {A.  C.  3690). 
''  The  historical  parts  were  given  on  this 
account,  that  little  children,  and  boys,  may  be 
initiated  thereby  into  the  reading  of  the  Word, 
for  these  parts  are  delightful,  and  gain  a  place 
in  their  minds,  by  which  communication  is 
thus  given  them  with  the  heavens"  {A.  C. 
6335). 

In  harmony  with  these  things,  it  is 
customary  to  use  all  suitable  portions  of  Bible 
history ;  to  speak  of  the  Lord's  coming  into 
the  world ;  of  the  New  Dispensation  that  He 


New  Church  Training      329 

inaugurated  when  He  opened  to  view  the 
Internal  Sense  within  the  Word ;  of  His 
miracles  and  parables  ;  of  His  transfiguration 
and  resurrection  ;  of  His  ascension  and  appear- 
ance to  John  as  an  "Angel  standing  in  the 
sun."  The  child  is  taught  that  His  Providence 
supplies  our  wants,  and  enters  into  all  things 
of  life ;  that  He  makes  the  earth  fruitful,  and 
dispenses  untold  good  for  all. 

It  is  also  regarded  as  part  of  the  training  of 
a  child  that  it  should  be  taught  to  acknowledge 
the  nearness  of  the  unseen  world.  Children 
can  think  of  two  worlds,  both  actual,  more 
easily  than  adults ;  and  they  can  also  realise 
that  the  outer  or  natural  world  corresponds  to 
the  spiritual  world,  which  is  more  perfect  and 
nearer  the  Lord. 

Last  of  all,  the  child  is  taught  that  he 
should  allow  himself  to  be  led  by  the  Lord, 
"  in  freedom,  and  according  to  reason  " ;  that 
he  must  not  act  from  self-wiU,  but  listen 
to  the  Divine  One,  who  is  ever  saying 
"FoUow  Me." 


330    The  Child  and  Religion 

It  is  a  help  to  parents  to  remember  that 
children  are  kept  by  the  Lord  in  an  affirma- 
tive disposition,  inclining  them  to  believe 
"that  what  is  said  by  parents  and  masters 
is  true"  (^.  C  2689).  This  affirmative  dis- 
position is  widely  influential,  and  it  greatly 
enhances  the  responsibility  resting  on  all  who 
share  in  the  training  of  the  young. 

In  no  case  is  it  ever  allowable  to  separate 
truth  from  its  own  good,  or  faith  from  the 
vital  charity  which  alone  connects  it  with 
the  Lord.  To  the  child's  mind,  good  actions 
only  appear  good  because  they  are  believed 
to  be  pleasing  to  the  Lord  and  conformable 
to  His  commandments.  Evil  actions  are  evil, 
because  they  are  against  God,  and  thus 
against  the  order  by  which  He  secures  the 
welfare  of  the  human  race.  It  comes  per- 
fectly natural  to  a  child  to  acknowledge 
the  Lord  and  heaven,  or  the  craft  and 
wickedness  of  evil  spirits.  Practically  children 
are  always  being  asked  whom  they  will  serve 
— the  Lord,  or  devils  ? 


New  Church  Training      331 

There  is  no  room  for  doubting  the  fact 
that  children  are  able  to  receive  religious 
impressions  ;  and,  with  the  Holy  Scriptures 
full  of  spiritual  and  Divine  truths,  it  is  possible 
to  convey  to  them  invaluable  lessons  that  will 
bring  untold  blessings,  and  secure  a  central 
place  in  their  affections  for  the  attractive 
goodness  of  the  Lord.  We  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  saying  that  one  of  the  first  lessons 
should  be  taught  in  these  words,  "  O  taste 
and  see  that  the  Lord  is  good." 

J.  J.  THORNTON. 
Glasgow. 


X 

THE   RELIGIOUS  TRAINING   OF 
CHILDREN  AMONG  THE  JEWS 


4 


In  no  denomination  does  the  religious  training 
of  children  take  a  higher  place  than  among 
the  Jews.  It  goes  without  saying  that  every 
religious  denomination  must  of  necessity 
depend  for  its  stability  upon  the  care  ex- 
pended in  the  direction  of  child-training.  It 
would,  perhaps,  be  too  much  to  say  that 
more  attention  has  been  expended  in  this 
direction  by  Jews  than  by  other  religionists, 
but  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  assert  that  Judaism 
has  been,  through  a  variety  of  circumstances, 
more  dependent  for  the  religion  of  its  men 
and  women  upon  the  religion  of  its  children 
than  any  other  denomination  of  equal  standing. 


332 


Among  the  Jews  333 

The  reason  for  this  is  twofold.  First, 
Judaism  is  a  reUgion  which  teems  with 
ceremonial  and  is  hedged  around  with 
various  ritual  observances  and  a  manifold 
disability  of  restriction,  all  of  which  are 
characteristic  of  observant  Judaism,  assert 
themselves  very  early  in  domestic  training, 
and  depend  for  their  continuance  in  grown- 
up life  entirely  upon  their  intelligibility  to 
the  child,  upon  the  place  they  assume  in 
his  sacred  associations  and  in  the  loyalty 
implanted  in  his  young  mind  and  heart. 

The  second  distinctive  element  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  Judaism  has  for  so  many  centuries 
stood  before  the  world  as  a  religion  of  general 
nonconformity.  Allegiance  to  its  principles 
has  been  in  some  instances  a  matter  of  martyr- 
dom, and  in  all  cases  a  question  of  self-sacrifice 
and  an  appreciable  amount  of  disability.  One 
of  the  most  important  features  in  the  training 
of  a  Jewish  child  inevitably  and  unconsciously 
takes  the  shape  of  preparation  for  this  disability, 
of  explanation  that  his  denomination  is  in  a 


334     "^^^  Child  and  Religion 

distinct  minority,  of  anticipation  of  the  re- 
strictions it  imposes,  and  of  furnishing  an 
armoury  sufficiently  strong  to  be  proof  against 
the  temptation  to  waver  in  allegiance  to  a 
creed  which  is  appreciably  unpopular. 

One  of  the  first  things  that  a  Jewish  child 
learns  is  that  the  term  "Jew"  is  one  of 
opprobrium  in  so  many  places.  If  he  does 
not  learn  it  from  his  unthinking  Christian 
school-fellows,  or  from  the  brutality  of  the 
streets  where  it  still  survives,  it  dawns  upon 
him  as  he  reads  his  history,  and,  as  a  general 
rule,  his  brave  young  heart  is  already  prepared, 
at  a  time  when  other  children  know  nothing 
of  such  problems,  to  meet  with  and  to  combat 
misunderstanding  and  injustice. 

Judaism,  however,  had  not  to  wait  until 
modern  times  for  the  exaltation  as  a  religious 
duty  of  the  care  for  the  upbringing  of  the 
child.  Already,  in  the  first  throes  of  the  birth 
of  the  nationality,  the  spirit  of  Judaism  fore- 
shadowed the  interest  of  the  child  in  the  first 
ordinance  prescribed  by  Moses  to  the  newly- 


1 


Among  the  Jews  335 

formed  people  —  viz.  that  of  the  Passover. 
"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  when  your  children 
ask  you,  '  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  ? ' " 
Nothing  was  to  take  anything  like  a  high  place 
in  Jewish  ceremony  unless  accompanied  by  the 
awakening  of  the  interest  of  the  children  and 
the  satisfying  of  that  interest  when  aroused. 
Modern  Jewish  ceremony  is  still  loyal  to  this 
initial  prescription  of  the  faith  for  the  whole  of 
the  Passover  home  celebration.  The  most 
important  and  the  most  impressive  of  all 
Jewish  domestic  ceremonies  hinges  upon  the 
questions  of  the  children,  and  the  place  of 
highest  importance  in  the  ceremony  is  that  of 
the  youngest  of  the  children  who  may  be 
present.  Nowhere,  perhaps,  does  the  duty  of 
child-education  assert  itself  with  greater 
eminence,  or  with  more  simple  impressiveness, 
than  in  the  classic  words  occurring  in  that  Bible 
passage  which  forms,  one  might  say,  the  Magna 
Charta  of  the  Jewish  Creed :  "  And  these 
words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall 
be  upon  thine  heart :  and  thou  shalt  teach  them 


336     The  Child  and  Religion 

diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shall  talk  of 
them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and 
when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou 
liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up  "  (Deut.  vi. 
6,  7).  There  never  has  been  any  miscon- 
ception as  to  the  meaning  of  these  words,  there 
being  nothing  more  clear  throughout  all  the 
Rabbinical  writings  than  the  complete  compre- 
hension that  when  the  Bible  says  :  "  And 
thou  shalt  teach  them  unto  thy  children,"  it 
means  that  the  duty  of  religious  training 
belongs  to  the  parent,  cannot  be  delegated 
to  strangers,  however  competent,  and  is  the 
highest  privilege  and  responsibility  of  father- 
hood and  motherhood. 

One  of  the  sources  of  the  strength  of  the 
Jewish  position  in  this  respect  has  always 
been  the  complete  accord  existing  between 
parents  and  teachers.  The  Talmud,  that 
wonderful  record  of  all  phases  of  Jewish  feeling, 
is  as  full  of  the  duty  to  teachers  as  it  is  of 
the  duty  to  parents.  "  Let  the  fear  of  your 
teacher  be  like  the  fear  of  Heaven,"  say  the 


Among  the  Jews  337 

Rabbis,  and  it  is,  perhaps,  not  so  much  to  the 
intellectuahty  of  the  Jew  as  it  is  to  the 
recognition  by  the  Jewish  parent  that  the 
teacher  of  his  children  is  his  alter  ego  that  we 
have  to  look  for  an  explanation  of  the  remark- 
able successes  of  Jewish  children  in  the  public 
schools.  The  Talmud  says  :  "  There  is  no 
poverty  except  ignorance,"  and  there  is  suf- 
ficient of  the  true  Jewish  spirit  in  this  aphorism 
to  make  Jews  proud  and  to  cause  others  to 
ponder. 

It  will  be  easily  understood  that  the  sense 
of  history  is  very  strong  in  the  Jew  and  is 
awakened  very  early  in  the  training  of  his 
child.  Ordinary  boys  and  girls  learn  the 
history  of  their  country ;  but  while  the  Jewish 
child  learns  the  history  of  England,  learns  it 
as  his  own,  and  takes  pride  in  it  accordingly, 
he  learns  the  Bible  as  his  own  history,  and  its 
influence  as  such  is  an  enormous  lever  in  his 
religious  education.  Waterloo  and  Trafalgar, 
Harfleur  and  Agincourt,  Cressy  and  Poictiers, 

make   the   ordinary  English  child  swell  with 

22 


338     The  Child  and  Religion 

pride ;  but  their  effect  is  slight  indeed  com- 
pared with  the  spirit  with  which  the  Jewish 
child  reads  of  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  of 
the  journeyings  in  the  wilderness,  and  of  the 
battles  of  David,  and  knows  that  there  flows 
within  his  own  veins  the  blood  of  those  who 
made  his  nation  great  and  distinguished  when 
Greece  and  Rome  were  struggling  into  exist- 
ence, and  when  the  great  powers  of  the  modern 
world  were  undreamed  of  by  civilised  men. 
Hence  it  is  that  while  the  great  Bible  stories 
have  so  much  to  teach  the  ordinary  child,  they 
are  to  his  Jewish  compeer  his  own  racial  epic, 
and  he  grows  up  with  the  feeling  of  racial 
continuity  glowing  within  his  heart  as  an 
incentive  and  inspiration  unparalleled  in  the 
religious  education  of  any  other  child. 

I  regret  that  there  is  no  space  within  the 
limits  of  this  article  to  deal  with  all  the  cere- 
monies of  Judaism  especially  concerned  with 
the  needs  of  children.  Perhaps  the  most 
beautiful  of  all  is  that  of  the  Sabbath  Eve, 
when  the  head   of  the  household   places   his 


Among  the  Jews  339 

hands  upon  the  bowed  heads  of  his  children 
and  blesses  them  in  the  words  in  which  Jacob 
uttered  his  blessing  to  the  sons  of  Joseph. 

The  modern  Synagogue  retains  some 
interesting  survivals,  to  this  date,  of  the  old- 
time  consideration  for  the  needs  of  the  child's 
education  in  reference  to  public  worship.  The 
precentor  or  "reader"  of  the  prayers  in  the 
Synagogue  still  bears  the  name  of  Chazon. 
The  term  nowadays  denominates  the  minister 
or  other  person  who  conducts  the  service  of 
prayer,  but  it  originally  meant  one  who  looks 
around  (a  curious  parallel  to  the  "  Episkopos  " 
of  the  Church).  The  function  of  this  official 
was  originally  to  go  round  the  Synagogue  to 
keep  order  among  the  children  and  to  see  that 
each  child  followed  the  service  in  the  prayer- 
book  in  the  proper  place.  Out  of  this  office  grew 
the  Jewish  ministry,  and  no  one  who  under- 
stands Judaism  can  wonder  at  the  connection. 

The  Synagogue  perhaps  affords  the  only 
instance  of  a  service  of  prayer  a  regular  part  of 
which  is  set  apart  for  children. 


340     The  Child  and  Religion 

Every  Jewish  boy  on  reaching  the  age  of 
thirteen  attains  his  reUgious  majority,  some- 
times called  in  modern  Judaism  by  the  some- 
what misleading  name  of  "  Confirmation." 
The  Hebrew  term  is  "  Barmitzvah/'  which 
literally  translated  means  a  son  of  duty,  that 
is,  one  who  has  reached  an  age  when  the  full 
obligation  of  religious  duty  can  be  understood 
and  assumed.  On  the  first  Sabbath  after  the 
attainment  of  the  age  of  thirteen,  the  boy 
attends  the  Synagogue  and  reads  a  portion  of 
the  law  from  the  lesson  of  that  particular  day. 
Of  course,  he  is  prepared  in  advance,  and  the 
event  is  the  turning-point  in  the  boy's  religious 
history.  There  is  nothing  more  characteristic- 
ally Jewish  or  more  charming  in  modern 
Jewish  ceremony  than  the  place  of  the  boy, 
when  on  this  occasion  the  public  service  of 
prayer  is  hushed  to  listen  to  the  childish  voice 
reciting  the  words  of  the  law.  But  if  he 
possesses  the  ability,  the  boy  needs  not  to  wait 
until  he  is  thirteen  to  take  part  in  the  Syna- 
gogue service.     He  may  not  read  part  of  the 


Among  the  Jews  341 

weekly  portion  from  the  Pentateuch,  but  there 
is  in  addition  to  the  lesson  from  the  Pentateuch 
a  shorter  lesson  from  the  prophets,  and  this 
the  child  may  read,  and  very  frequently  does, 
as  soon  as  he  is  able. 

Once  a  year,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Rejoicing 
of  the  Law,  all  the  boys  in  the  congregation 
ascend  the  reading  desk,  and  together  recite 
the  blessing  which  on  ordinary  occasions  is 
read  by  those  who  are  called  to  the  reading  of 
the  law.  The  orthodox  Synagogue  service 
affords  no  similar  opportunity  for  the  girls. 
The  Orientalism  clinging  to  the  Synagogue 
still  keeps  all  women  and  girls  to  the  galleries, 
while  the  floor  of  the  Synagogue,  together  with 
participation  in  the  service,  is  reserved  for  the 
men  and  the  boys.  But  within  recent  years 
the  need  has  been  recognised  for  some  cere- 
mony which  shall  exercise  for  the  girls  the 
same  influence  that  the  Barmitzvah  has  over 
the  boys,  and  in  most  modern  Synagogues  con- 
ducted on  liberal  lines,  a  special  service  for  girls 
is  held  at  least  once  a  year.    In  this  case  there 


342     The  Child  and   ReUgion 

is  a  class  of  preparation  in  the  tenets  of  the 
faith,  while  the  service  includes  the  public  recital 
by  the  girls  of  a  special  prayer  and  a  charge 
from  the  pulpit  by  the  officiating  minister. 

The  access  of  Jews  to  the  privileges  of 
higher  education,  the  eagerness  with  which 
it  has  been  seized,  the  opening  of  the  great 
public  schools  to  Jewish  children,  and  the 
corresponding  diminution  in  specific  Jewish 
denominational  schools,  has  militated  some- 
what against  the  acquisition  by  Jewish  children 
of  the  knowledge  of  Hebrew  which  originally 
was  a  sine  qua  non  in  Jewish  education.  This 
is  partly  met  by  private  tuition  and  to  a  large 
extent  by  the  establishment  in  connection 
with  every  large  Synagogue  of  religious 
classes,  which  Jewish  children  attend  as  a 
rule  on  Sunday  mornings.  But  the  fact  still 
remains  that  in  denominational  schools  where 
Hebrew  forms  a  part  of  the  ordinary  curric- 
ulum, the  time  given  to  the  study  of  Hebrew 
does  not  in  any  way  prejudice  the  progress  of 
the  children  in  secular  subjects. 


Among  the  Jews  343 


I  have  dealt  with  that  phase  of  child-reUgion 
which  is  specifically  Jewish,  and  it  has,  of 
necessity,  hinged  upon  specifically  Jewish 
ceremonial.  So  far  as  the  ethical  side  of 
religion  is  concerned,  the  upbringing  of  Jewish 
children  in  principles  of  integrity,  piety, 
unselfishness,  personal  purity  and  personal 
righteousness  presents  no  features  different 
to  those  which  make  up  the  education  of 
other  children,  class  for  class.  These  must  be 
guided,  of  course,  by  personal  bent,  and  belong 
to  that  class  of  religious  teaching  of  which  it 
can  now  be  said  that  it  is  the  monopoly  of  no 
creed,  and  the  duty  of  all,  and  of  which  I 
trust  the  same  will  be  said  and  felt  for  all 
time. 

A.  A.  GREEN. 

Hampstead  Synagogue. 


XI 

THE  CHILD  AND  THE  BIBLE 

In  this  paper  I  shall  discuss  how  best  we  may 
use  the  Bible  as  a  means  of  educating  children, 
i.e.  of  quickening  and  informing  their  in- 
telligence, instilling  correct  and  powerful 
moral  principles  and  training  them  to  be  loyal 
and  useful  servants  of  Christ. 

Perhaps  the  first  step  in  education  is  to 
teach  a  child  the  meaning  of  words,  i.e.  to  give 
him  names  for  the  persons  and  things  he  sees 
around  and  for  the  thoughts  they  evoke  in  him. 
This  involves  the  important  mental  exercise  of 
discriminating  different  objects  and  ideas.  The 
child  thus  becomes,  in  increasing  measure, 
master  of  a  language  ;  and  learns  to  receive 
ideas  through  the  lips  of  others,  touching 
things  he  has  not  himself  seen. 

344 


The  Child  and  the   Bible    345 

Another  early  branch  of  education  is  to 
learn  to  read.  This  still  further  widens  the 
pupil's  mental  vision  by  enabling  him  to  re- 
I  ceive  knowledge  not  merely  through  human  lips 
but  from  the  silent  printed  page.  Through 
this  important  medium,  he  comes  into  contact 
with  thought  and  life  far  removed  from  himself 
in  time  and  place ;  in  some  cases,  with  a 
thought  and  life  much  higher  than  that  of 
the  men  and  women  by  whom  he  is  surrounded. 

Reading  thus  introduces  him  into  the  great 
world  of  literature,  which  in  all  ages  has  been 
a  great  school  of  culture.  The  mental  horizon 
of  the  man  who  cannot  read  is  bounded  by 
the  little  world  which  he  can  himself  see 
and  hear  and  touch.  Ability  to  read  marks 
off  the  lower  civilisation,  as  compared  with 
Christain  nations,  of  China  and  Persia  from 
the  unlettered  savages  of  Africa.  The  great 
religions  of  the  world,  by  putting  books  into 
the  hands  of  their  votaries,  have  rendered 
immense  service  to  human  culture. 

Among   all   the   books   of  the   world,   one 


34^     The  Child  and  Religion 

volume  holds,  by  unanimous  consent  of  all  the 
foremost  nations,  a  place  of  unique  superiority. 
This  is  seen  in  its  wide  circulation,  the  time 
and  toil  spent  in  its  exposition,  and  in  its 
influence  on  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the  most 
intelligent  and  devout  men.  If  any  book 
claims  to  be  read,  and  promises  abundant 
recompense  to  those  who  read  it,  i.e.  if  any 
book  is  a  fit  instrument  of  education,  intel- 
lectual, moral,  and  religious,  that  book  is 
the  Bible. 

What  is  the  secret  of  this  remarkable 
superiority?  The  unique  book  contains  the 
earliest  account  of  the  life  and  teaching  of 
a  unique  personality ;  and  traces  back  His 
antecedents  to  a  unique  ancient  nationality. 
By  a  recognition  rapidly  becoming  universal, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  stands  absolutely  alone 
as  incomparably  the  greatest  and  best  of 
men.  He  reigns  in  the  hearts  of  unnumbered 
thousands  in  every  position  of  life  as  the 
loftiest  ideal  of  excellence  they  have  ever 
seen  and  the  most  powerful   moral   influence 


I 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    347 

they  have  ever  felt.  To  Him,  all  that  is  best 
in  us  bows  with  lowly  homage  as  to  a  pattern 
we  are  bound  to  imitate :  and  He  is  to  us  a 
stimulus  for  all  that  is  good.  This  lofty  ideal, 
our  loyalty  to  Christ  requires  us  to  put  as  early 
as  possible  before  the  eyes  and  in  the  hearts  of 
the  young  around  us. 

Associated  with  Christ  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  other  characters  good  and  bad,  some 
of  them  painted  in  vivid  colours.  These 
greatly  enlarge  and  make  clearer  our  know- 
ledge of  Him.  To  them  were  spoken  His 
recorded  words ;  and  these  last  we  can  under- 
stand only  by  hearing  the  words  to  which 
they  were  replies,  or  by  knowing  something 
about  the  actions  which  evoked  them.  These 
men  were  His  personal  environment ;  and,  on 
the  pages  of  the  New  Testament,  they  are 
the  framework  of  our  picture  of  Him.  Many 
of  them  are  of  special  interest  to  us  as  the 
agents  through  whose  activity  Christ  became 
the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

This    supreme   personality   and   these   sub- 


348     The  Child  and  Religion 

ordinates  around  Him  are  known  to  us,  with 
rational  certainty,  only  through  the  New 
Testament,  which  contains  all  the  earliest 
extant  Christian  literature. 

Another  well-known  collection  of  books, 
not  equal  to  the  New  Testament,  but  holding 
a  second  place,  far  above  all  others,  in  the 
religious  literature  of  the  world,  is  the  Old 
Testament.  This  contains  the  entire  earliest 
literature  of  the  nation  from  which  Christ 
sprang ;  and  in  it  we  can  trace,  in  a  unique 
national  history,  the  steps  leading  up  to  the 
great  movement  which  sprang  from  Him  and 
has  changed  for  good  the  entire  current  of 
human  thought  and  life.  Only  by  these  earlier 
steps,  confined  within  the  narrow  limits  of 
one  small  nationality,  can  we  understand  the 
world-wide  and  world-transforming  influence 
of  Christ. 

The  Bible  contains  also  abundant  teaching 
about  God,  His  will  concerning  us,  and  the 
blessings  He  waits  to  bestow. 

All  this   indicates  the   use  we  may  make 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    349 

of  the  Bible  in  the  training  of  the  child. 
We  shall  find  in  it  (1)  a  series  of  most 
interesting  and  instructive  biographies ;  (2)  a 
unique  ancient  history ;  (3)  moral  and  religious 
teaching  from  the  lips  of  incomparably  the 
greatest  Teacher  the  world  has  ever  known. 
In  all  these  respects,  the  Bible  is  by  far  the 
greatest  and  best  of  school-books. 

The  men  and  women  around  the  child  are 
his  earliest  lesson-books  in  the  school  of  morals. 
He  soon  begins  to  discriminate,  and  pronounce 
judgment  upon,  different  types  of  character, 
accepting,  perhaps  unconsciously,  some  men 
as  patterns,  and  turning  from  others  with 
aversion.  It  is  all-important  to  supplement 
these  lessons  by  a  circle  of  characters  wider 
than  his  own  acquaintances,  to  put  before 
him  men  moving  in  circumstances  other  than 
his  own,  and  themselves  of  loftier  stature. 
In  books  we  often  look  more  deeply  into 
the  springs  of  action  and  into  character  than 
we  can  do  with  persons  living  around  us. 
Moreover,   we    can    talk    more   freely   about 


350     The  Child  and  Religion 

men  at  a  distance  than  we  can  about  those 
closely  related  to  us ;  and  about  these  last, 
our  judgments  are  apt  to  be  warped  by  J 
personal  bias.  Moreover,  the  lapse  of  ages 
enables  us  better  to  estimate  character. 
Biography  has  always  been  a  most  effective 
school  of  morals. 

The  Bible  contains  portraits  of  men  and 
women  in  all  positions  in  life  and  of  utmost 
variety  of  character,  some  of  them  of  colossal 
greatness.  Into  this  glorious  picture  gallery 
of  living  portraits,  it  is  our  privilege  to  lead 
the  children.  Even  to  little  ones  we  can 
tell  the  story  of  Abraham,  Moses,  Samuel, 
David,  Solomon,  Daniel,  of  John  the  Baptist, 
Peter,  and  of  Paul.  As  years  roll  by,  we 
can,  with  increasing  profit,  repeat  the  lesson. 
The  acquaintances  in  this  way  made  in  child- 
hood will  be  the  companions  and  helpers  of 
manhood  and  old  age.  Thus  in  childhood 
we  may  lay  a  foundation  of  a  moral  environ- 
ment which  will  be  to  us  through  life  a  school, 
a  refuge,  and  a  home. 


p 

The  Child  and  the  Bible    351 

All  other  Bible  characters  must  be  put  in 
conspicuous  subordination  to  One  Supreme 
Personality.  The  brightest  of  them  are  but 
planets  revolving  round  the  sun.  This  being 
so,  the  story  and  character  and  teaching  of 
Christ  must  have  a  conspicuously  central 
place  in  our  Bible  teaching.  We  shall  tell 
about  the  shepherds  and  the  wise  men  from 
the  East,  the  Boy  asking  questions  in  the 
sacred  precincts,  the  great  preacher  pointing 
to  one  greater  than  himself,  about  the  miracles 
and  parables  of  Christ,  the  Last  Supper,  the 
arrest  in  the  garden,  His  cruel  death.  His 
burial  by  Joseph  and  Nicodemus,  the  empty 
grave,  the  journey  to  Emmaus,  the  appearance 
to  the  disciples  in  the  evening,  another  appear- 
ance a  week  later  when  Thomas  was  there, 
the  appearance  in  Galilee  and  the  miraculous 
draught  of  fishes,  and  the  ascent  from  Olivet. 
These  incidents  will  afford  us  an  inexhaustible 
treasury  of  most  valuable  teaching.  More- 
over, since  the  real  moral  grandeur  of  Christ, 
and  its  infinite  superiority  to  all  other  human 


352     The  Child  and  Religion 

greatness,  are  seen  only  in  the  light  of  the! 
glory  which  for  our  sakes  He  laid  aside,  in 
His  case  theology  must  be  interwoven  with 
biography.  And  this  interweaving  of  the 
human  and  divine  in  Christ  is  the  best  intro- 
duction, for  young  pupils,  to  the  superhuman 
dignity  of  Christ.  Similarly,  with  Abraham 
and  Moses,  the  character  of  the  man  can  be 
correctly  appreciated  only  in  the  light  of  his 
relation  to  the  great  purposes  of  God.  Thus 
their  greatness  will  shed  light  upon  Him 
whose  forerunners  they  were.  This  subordi- 
nation of  all  Bible  characters  to  Christ  must 
be  ever  kept  in  view. 

As  an  introduction  to  history,  it  is  well, 
with  children  under  our  continuous  charge, 
to  take  these  characters  in  chronological  order. 
And  each  new  character  should  be  put  in 
comparison  and  contrast  with  earlier  ones. 
Thus  the  learners  will  come  instinctively  to 
weave  biography  into  history,  and  to  note 
the  development  of  human  life  from  age  to 
age. 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    353 

The  history  of  Israel  is  the  earUest  and  by- 
far  the  most  instructive  in  Uterature.     More- 
over, while   the   remains   of  Egypt,  Assyria, 
and   Babylon   have    for    long    centuries    lain 
buried    under   the   sands   of  the   desert,   the 
story  of  ancient  Israel  has,  in  all  progressive 
nations,  been  read,  to  great  profit,  throughout 
the  Christian  era.      And  even  now  that  the 
long  buried  ruins  have  been  disinterred,  and 
abundant  evidence  has  been  found,  in  addition 
to  the  vivid  pictures  in   the  Old  Testament, 
of  the  very  early  civilisation  and  even  of  the 
religious  thought  of  Egypt,  we  find  in  all  the 
relics  of  the  past  little  that  is  worth  the  name 
of  history,  little  to   shed  light  on  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  growth  of  the   nation  and 
thus    help    us    to  -  day.        But    in   the    Old 
Testament  we  see,  clearly  depicted,  the  early 
antecedents,   the   birth   and  growth,  and  the 
strange  fortunes,  of  Israel,  a  story  and  a  series 
of    living    pictures   without    parallel    in    the 
literature  of  the  world. 

The  unique  strangeness  of  this  story  bears 

23 


354    The  Child  and  Religion 

on  almost  every  page  the  marks  of  truth. 
We  have  a  terrible  picture  of  helpless  and 
hopeless  bondage  in  Egypt ;  Israel's  marvel- 
lous deliverance,  not  by  a  national  uprising, 
but  under  guidance  of  a  man  claiming  divine 
authority ;  the  long  wandering  in  the  wilder- 
ness, as  a  punishment  of  unfaithfulness ;  and 
the  settlement  in  Canaan.  Then  the  curtain 
falls ;  and  the  consecutive  narrative  is  broken 
off.  When  it  is  lifted,  we  find  Israel  again  in 
bondage  to  one  after  another  of  the  surround- 
ing tribes,  bondage  so  complete  that  even 
instruments  of  agriculture  were  denied  them. 

Then  follows,  in  a  connected  narrative,  the 
story  of  the  kingdom  from  its  rise  to  its  fall. 
We  have  the  prophet  Samuel  laying  the 
foundation  of  a  theocratic  state,  the  strange 
reign  of  Saul,  the  empire  built  up  with 
oriental  rapidity  by  David,  its  brilliant  bloom 
under  Solomon,  bearing,  however,  even  before 
his  death,  marks  of  decay.  At  once  follows 
the  divided  kingdom;  the  successive  revolu- 
tions, the  deep  fall  into  idolatry,  the  persecu- 


I 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    355 

tion  of  the  servants  of  Jehovah,  and  the  early 
captivity,  of  the  northern  kingdom ;  the 
greater  faithfulness  of  Judah,  some  good  kings 
who  endeavoured  to  maintain  the  ancient 
worship  of  God,  and  the  concentration  of 
worship  around  Jerusalem,  till  it  also  is  carried 
away  to  a  far-off  bondage,  and  the  temple  lies 
in  ruins. 

This  story  of  Israel  brings  also  into  view 
the  greater  empires  around,  especially  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  and  afterwards  Babylon ;  thus 
keeping  them  before  the  eyes  of  Europe 
long  before  their  remains  were  disinterred  in 
modern  times.  This  wider  view  gives  us  a 
nobler  conception  of  history  as  a  presentation 
of  the  development  not  of  some  one  race,  but 
of  the  human  race  as  a  whole. 

Then  follows  the  marvellous  return  from 
captivity,  and  the  restoration  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  public  worship  of  God  under 
Persian  rule.  The  subsequent  history  of 
Israel  under  Greek  rule  can  easily  be  filled 
in   from    other    sources,   until    in    the    New 


356    The  Child  and  ReHgion 

Testament  the  curtain  is  lifted  by  the  births 
of  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  under  Roman 
rule.  We  have  casual  mention  of  three 
Roman  emperors,  Augustus,  Tiberius,  and 
Claudius.  But  for  a  time  history  is  lost  in 
biography,  while  our  gaze  is  fixed  on  one 
supreme  personality  ;  and,  after  His  disappear- 
ance, on  the  progress  of  the  movement  to 
which  He  had  given  birth. 

All  this  contains  important  lessons.  The 
story  of  Israel  will  give,  even  to  a  child,  a 
conception  of  the  life  of  a  nation,  of  its  rise, 
chequered  history,  fall,  resurrection,  and 
second  fall ;  and  of  the  rise  from  among 
its  ruins  of  a  world-transforming  movement. 
Even  to  little  children,  the  story  may  be  told 
as  an  interesting  narrative ;  and,  as  they  grow 
older,  from  the  narrative  repeated  and  sup- 
plemented, they  will  gain,  with  increasing 
clearness  and  breadth,  a  conception  of  the  real 
significance  of  all  history  and  of  the  historic 
development  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  A 
less,  but   real,   gain   is   the  addition  to  their 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    357 

memory  of  many  interesting  and  useful 
facts. 

Other  lessons  vastly  more  important  than 
the  above  will  result  from  a  skilful  use  of  the 
Bible  as  a  means  of  education.  The  Holy 
Scriptures  are  primarily  a  record  of  super- 
natural revelations  Jfrom  God  to  man  touching 
the  unseen  and  eternal  realities  which  under- 
lie human  thought  and  life.  To  place  these, 
as  fully  and  accurately  as  possible,  before  the 
minds  and  in  the  hearts  of  our  children,  is  the 
true  aim  of  all  religious  education. 

The  story  of  Israel  differs  infinitely  from 
all  others  in  that  God  is,  in  it.  Himself  the 
chief  actor.  The  first  chapter  of  the  Bible 
pays  homage  to  Him  as  existing  before  the 
universe,  which  it  represents,  with  all  its  con- 
tents lifeless  and  living,  as  springing  into  being 
at  His  bidding  and  as  absolutely  subject  to 
His  sway.  In  the  following  chapters,  the 
Creator  of  the  World  claims  man's  obedience, 
confidence,  and  love  ;  and  reveals  Himself  as 
the  friend  and  helper,  and  the  righteous  judge 


358     The  Child  and  Religion 

of  all  men,  In  the  New  Testament  we  hear 
the  voice  of  a  supreme  Teacher  in  human 
form  who  claims  for  Himself  the  homage 
due  to  God,  and  claims  that  we  can  serve 
God  only  by  serving  Him  whom  God  sent 
into  the  world.  He  calls  himself  the  Son 
of  God,  the  only-begotten  Son;  and  announces 
that  He  will  come  again  to  judge  all  men, 
to  give  eternal  life  to  those  who  follow  Him, 
and  to  punish  most  severely  those  who  re- 
fuse to  obey  Him.  In  other  words,  the  whole 
Bible  tells  of  a  world  unseen,  of  persons  in- 
finitely greater  than  those  around  us,  and 
of  endless  life  and  blessing  for  the  righteous. 

All  this  is  intensely  interesting  to  children. 
It  arouses  their  curiosity,  and  evokes  the 
sense  of  awe  ever  latent  even  in  immature 
intelligence.  Of  this  attractiveness,  the  teacher 
may  make  good  use  as  a  means  of  instilling,  at 
the  most  receptive  period  of  life,  lessons  of 
utmost  value. 

The  earliest  lessons  in  religion  should  be 
about     the    reality    and     nearness    of    God, 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    359 

watching  all  we  do  and  hearing  all  we  say, 
our  loving  Father,  watching  us  that  He  may- 
protect  and  help,  yet  because  He  loves  us, 
requiring  from  us  obedience  and  love,  and 
punishing  disobedience.  Closely  following  this 
teaching  about  God  must  come  the  great 
lesson  that  life  on  earth  is  but  the  beginning 
of  what  may  be  an  endless  life  of  infinite 
blessing  in  our  Father's  house  above.  Along 
with  this  the  teacher  must  seek  to  evoke  a 
sense  of  sin,  as  ingratitude  to  infinite  love. 
While  thus  endeavouring  to  lead  his  charge 
to  repentance,  he  will  find  place  for  God's 
promise  to  pardon  sin  and  to  save  us  from 
sinning. 

Great  care  should  be  taken  to  set  before 
children,  so  far  as  they  can  understand  it, 
the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  about 
the  superhuman  dignity  of  Christ.  This  may 
be  done  to  a  far  larger  extent  than  is  generally 
supposed.  For  instance,  the  meaning  of  the 
great  title  The  Son  of  God,  conspicuous 
throughout     the    New    Testament,    may    be 


360     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

illustrated  by  the  parable  of  the  vineyard,  in 
Matt.  xxi.  37.  Here,  in  contrast  to  earlier 
messengers  who  were  only  servants,  Christ  is 
called  the  master's  son  ;  and  the  master  says 
that,  although  the  unfaithful  vine-dressers 
have  ill-treated  and  slain  them,  they  will 
not  venture  to  injure  him.  Every  child 
knows  the  essential  difference  between  the 
master's  son  and  the  highest  of  his  servants. 
And  this  clearly  understood  difference  may 
be  used  by  the  teacher  as  a  means  of  instilling 
a  conception  of  the  infinite  superiority  of 
Christ  to  the  greatest  to  men,  e.g.  to  Moses 
or  John  the  Baptist.  The  impression  thus 
made  may  be  deepened  by  the  abundant 
teaching,  by  various  New  Testament  writers,  eg. 
Matt.  vii.  23,  xvi.  27,  xxv.  31,  John  v.  28,  29, 
Acts  xvii.  31,  2  Cor.  v.  10,  that  Christ  will  be 
the  Judge  of  the  World.  This  may  easily  be 
illustrated  to  children  by  describing  a  criminal 
court  of  justice,  where  the  accused  stands 
trembling  in  the  dock,  while  the  judge  sits 
in    dignity  and    power    and    pronounces    an 


The  Child  and  the   Bible    361 

irresistible  judgment.  In  the  great  day,  when 
even  the  greatest  and  best  will  themselves 
be  judged,  Christ  claimed  that  He  will  sit 
in  splendour  and  power  as  their  judge. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  of  God  presents 
greater,  though  by  no  means  insuperable, 
difficulties.  We  may  give  the  child  a  rudi- 
mentary yet  real  conception  of  psychology  by 
speaking  of  the  unseen  principle  moving  from 
within  all  living  things,  the  seat  of  intelligence 
and  emotion,  distinguishing  them  from  the 
lifeless  objects  around.  We  can  then  speak 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  Samson,  Bezaleel, 
David,  and  the  prophets,  moving  them  from 
within  and  making  them  to  be  virtually  the 
arm  and  hand  and  voice  of  God,  and  thus 
producing  results  far  above  the  power  of  man. 
This  will  enable  the  teacher  to  say  that  Christ, 
when  about  to  leave  the  world,  promised  to 
give  His  Spirit  to  dwell  in  His  servants  as 
their  guide  and  strength  and  as  Himself  in 
them  the  Breath  of  immortal  life.  It  is  all- 
important  to   teach   the   young,   as    early   as 


362     The  Child  and  Religion 

possible,  that  in  the  struggle  of  life  they  dol 
not  fight  alone  and  in  their  own  strength,  but' 
that  with  them  and  in  them  is  a  divine  Helper 
who  will  by  His  own  presence  supply  all  their ! 
need. 

An  essential  element  of  all  religious  educa- 
tion is  to  evoke  in  our  pupils  a  consciousness 
of  personal  sin  and  sinfulness,  and  of  their 
need  of  pardon  for  the  past  and  of  deliverance 
in  the  future  from  the  power  of  sin.  While 
announcing  pardon,  we  must  point  to  the 
death  of  Christ  on  the  cross  as  the  mysterious 
channel  of  forgiveness  and  as  an  amazing 
proof  of  the  infinite  love  of  Him  who  gave 
His  Son  to  die  for  men.  We  must  also  teach 
that  He  who  died  for  them  now  claims  their 
unreserved  devotion  to  His  great  work  of 
saving  the  world. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Church  is  also  within 
the  comprehension  of  children.  We  can  talk 
to  them  about  the  Good  Shepherd  and  the 
Flock  needing  and  having  His  guidance  and 
protection,  and  of  the  need  that  lambs  keep 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    363 

near  to  the  shepherd  ;  also  of  the  great  temple 
of  which  His  followers  are  living  stones  united 
each  to  the  others  and  all  resting  upon  the 
great  Foundation  Stone,  all  the  stones  being 
also  both  builders  and  worshippers. 

We  must  also  speak  of  the  City  of  God,  the 
glorious  and  eternal  home  of  the  family  of 
God  ;  and  warn  our  pupils  that  no  evil  person 
will  enter  there. 

In  short,  by  an  intelligent  use  of  metaphor 
and  parable,  the  whole  round  of  theology,  ix, 
of  the  saving  truths  revealed  by  God  to  man, 
may  in  no  small  measure  be  brought  to  bear 
helpfully  on  the  thought  of  children,  so  as  to 
mould  and  raise  their  whole  future  thought. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  above  theological 
teaching  does  not  involve  denominational 
differences,  i.e.  such  differences  as  divide 
the  various  organised  Christian  communions. 
By  emphasising  these  important  doctrines,  we 
set  before  our  pupils,  not  the  disagreements, 
but  the  agreements,  of  the  followers  of  Christ. 
We  thus  help  them  to  accept  as  brethren  an 


364     The  Child  and  ReUgion 

immense  majority  of  all  who  call  themselves 
Christians.  To  teach  children  doctrines  about 
which  Christians  differ,  is  to  sow  division 
among  the  servants  of  Christ  and  to  rend 
His  seamless  robe.  Fortunately  the  doctrines 
which  bear  most  closely  on  personal  religion, 
which  is  the  true  aim  of  Bible  teaching,  are 
common  to  all  churches.  On  the  other  hand, 
to  pass  over  the  doctrines  in  which  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  differs  from  all  other  religious  beliefs, 
is  to  leave  untaught  that  which  our  pupils 
most  need  to  know. 

The  above  elements  of  biography,  history, 
and  theology  should  be  closely  interwoven. 
The  various  characters  so  vividly  depicted  on 
the  sacred  page  will  at  once  arrest  attention 
and  teach  important  moral  lessons.  Taken 
in  chronological  order,  they  will  give  a  true 
conception  of  history  as  a  record  of  the 
development  of  national  life.  Placed  in  due 
subordination  to  Him,  they  will  throw  into 
relief  the  unique  and  supreme  dignity  of 
Christ.     Moreover,  this  last  can  be  understood 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    365 

only  by  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament 
about  the  infinite  grandeur  which  for  a  time 
He  laid  aside  in  order  to  come  into  the  world 
to  save  men  by  revealing  to  them  the  infinite 
love  of  God  and  by  setting  before  them  the 
infinite  example  of  His  own  devotion  to  God, 
and  to  the  work  of  mercy  which  He  came  to 
accomplish.  The  principles  underlying  God's 
moral  government  of  the  world  are  also 
illustrated  by  the  story  of  ancient  Israel,  and 
even  by  the  casual  references  to  the  nations 
around.  Taken  together  in  their  mutual 
relations,  the  biography,  history,  and  religious 
teaching,  preserved  for  us  by  the  kind  provi- 
dence of  God  in  the  Bible,  afford  a  means  of 
education  in  morals  and  religion  suitable  for 
all,  and  of  infinite  value. 

A  few  words  now  about  the  method  of 
teaching.  With  little  children,  we  shall  do 
well  to  begin  by  ourselves  narrating  in  our 
own  simple  words  the  story  of  Christ,  laying 
due  emphasis  on  His  death,  resurrection,  and 
ascension,    and    by    reproducing   the    simpler 


366     The  Child  and  Religion 


Qff  ■ 


elements  of  His  teaching ;  supplementing 
these  by  the  story  of  the  apostles  and  of  the 
founding  of  the  Church.  As  an  agreeable 
contrast,  we  may  go  back  to  the  story  of  the 
patriarchs,  of  Moses  and  the  Exodus,  of  the 
prophets  and  kings,  of  the  Exile  and  the 
Return.  Our  first  aim  will  be  to  fix  events  as 
fully  and  clearly  and  extensively  as  we  can  in 
the  memories  of  our  pupils ;  and  while  doing 
this  we  shall  be  able  to  imprint  in  their  minds 
important  moral  and  religious  lessons.  These 
last  will,  even  to  little  ones,  invest  the  facts 
with  dignity  and  also  develop  the  moral  sense 
latent  in  all  children.  This  stage  of  teaching, 
not  being  hampered  by  the  toil  of  learning  to 
read,  will  produce  most  valuable  results  at  a 
very  early  age. 

The  impression  thus  produced  may  be 
deepened  and  other  benefits  added,  by  asking 
children  rather  more  advanced  to  reproduce  in 
their  own  words  the  stories  they  have  heard  and 
the  moral  lessons  they  have  learnt  from  them. 

A  further  stage  is  to  require  our  pupils  to 


The  Child  and   the  Bible    367 

read  the  narratives  aloud  from  the  pages  of 
the  Bible ;  the  eye  thus  taking  the  place  of  the 
ear  as  the  channel  of  instruction.  But,  in  all 
cases,  reading  should  be  supplemented  by  the 
living  voice  of  the  teacher,  interpreting  more 
fully  to  his  pupils  the  sense  already  learnt  from 
the  printed  page. 

The  immediate  aim  of  all  Bible  teaching  is 
to  transfer  to  the  memory  of  our  pupils,  as  a 
permanent  moral  force,  as  much  as  we  can  of 
the  contents  of  the  sacred  books ;  and  so  to 
expound  them  as  to  mould  and  raise  their 
thoughts  and  hearts  and  lives.  With  this 
main  purpose,  other  collateral  benefits  will 
follow.  Our  pupils  will  learn  the  habit  of 
studying  character,  not  only  by  personal 
acquaintance,  but  by  the  wider  acquaintance 
stored  up  for  us  in  books.  The  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  an  ancient  nation  will  give  a 
conception  of  the  significance  of  all  history, 
ancient  and  modern,  and  of  the  correct  method 
of  historical  research. 

In    all    Bible  teaching  we   must   ever  re- 


368     The  Child  and  ReHgion 

member  that  in  the  Sacred  Records  we  not 
only  have  a  picture  of  Christ  and  true  teaching 
about  God,  but  that  in  that  picture  and  teach- 
ing God  Himself  comes  near  to  us,  lays  His 
hand  upon  us,  and  by  His  own  presence 
reveals  Himself  to  us  as  our  Father  and 
Saviour ;  that  it  is  His  prerogative  to  lift  the 
veil  which  hides  from  mortal  sight  the  things 
unseen ;  and  that  He  will  do  this,  through  the 
pages  of  the  Bible,  to  all  who  earnestly  ask 
Him.  The  Book  is  itself  the  permanent  and 
divinely-erected  temple  of  revealed  truth,  the 
chosen  means  of  preserving  that  truth  in  the 
Church,  and  of  conveying  it  uncorrupted  to  all 
future  ages.  Even  the  Old  Testament  is,  in 
2  Tim.  iii.  16,  spoken  of  as  God-breathed ;  and 
in  Heb.  x.  15  words  from  Jer.  xxxi.  33  are 
quoted  as  a  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In 
the  Bible,  in  a  way  surpassing  all  human  in- 
telligence, we  see  the  face  of  Christ  and  hear 
the  words  of  God. 

This  explains  Matt.  xi.  25,  "  I  thank  Thee, 
Father,  .  .  .  that    Thou    hast    hidden    these 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    369 

things  from  men  wise  and  intelligent,  and  hast 

revealed   them   to   babes;"  and  ch.    xiii.   11, 

''  To  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of 

the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not 

given;"   also   Luke   xxiv.    27,    32,    45,    ''He 

interpreted  to  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the 

things   concerning  Himself.  .  .  .  He   opened 

to   us   the   Scriptures.  .  .  .  He  opened  their 

mind  to  understand  the   Scriptures."     These 

mysteries,   hidden   under  the   surface   of  the 

Holy   Scriptures,  it  is  the  prerogative  of  the 

Holy  Spirit  to  reveal ;  and  the  medium  and 

condition   of  this   revelation  is  a  careful  and 

devout    study    of  the   grammatical   meaning 

of  the  words  of  the  Bible.     The  Spirit  gives 

insight  into  the  spiritual   significance   of  the 

words  ;  and  careful  grammatical  study  guards 

against  the  vagaries  into  which  devout  men 

have  sometimes  fallen. 

Such   reverent  study  is  a  pre-requisite   for 

all   effective   Bible   teaching;    and    we   must 

endeavour  to  inculcate  in  our  pupils  the  same 

reverence   and   faith.      We   may  thus   direct 

24 


370    The  Child  and  Religion 

them  while  young  to  a  never-faihng  source  of 
highest  blessing. 

We  must  also  remember  that  for  all  our 
pupils  Christ  died  ;  and  that  He  now  claims 
the  definite  self-surrender  of  each  to  Himself 
to  be  His  servants.  In  no  way  can  we  do 
more  to  win  for  Christ  the  hearts  of  the 
young  and  to  make  them  useful  members  of 
His  Church  than  by  setting  before  them  the 
abundant  teaching  stored  up  in  the  Sacred 
Volume. 

From  the  above  will  appear  the  many-sided 
benefit  of  Bible  study.  As  containing  vivid 
pictures  of  all  sorts  of  men  in  all  sorts  of 
circumstances,  it  is  intensely  interesting.  As 
presenting  an  impartial  history  of  the  most 
highly  privileged  nation  of  the  ancient  world, 
it  encourages  a  study  of  the  history  of  all 
ancient  nations  and  of  all  history.  As  litera- 
ture of  very  various  kinds,  it  creates  a  taste 
for  all  literature,  and  thus  opens  a  way  to  all 
kinds  of  culture.  In  the  Sacred  Book  we  learn 
about,  and  take  hold  of,  those  unseen  realities 


The  Child  and  the  Bible    371 

which  will  abide  when  all  else  has  passed 
away;  we  hear  the  voice  and  see  the  face 
and  grasp  the  hand  of  Christ,  and  in  Him  we 
find  salvation  and  rest. 

All  this  we  may  impart,  in  much  larger 
measure  than  at  first  sight  appears,  to  the 
young,  especially  to  those  under  our  con- 
tinuous charge.  In  so  doing,  we  give  them  a 
taste  of  the  pleasantness  and  profit  of  literature 
and  of  all  human  culture  ;  and  we  teach  them 
that  all  culture  helps  us  to  understand  the 
things  of  God.  We  also  teach  them  that 
matters  sacred  and  secular  are  so  closely 
interwoven,  that  whatever  sheds  light  upon 
the  one  helps  us  to  understand  the  other. 
We  thus  lay  in  youthful  minds  a  foundation 
for  a  genuine  Christian  culture  and  for  an 
intelligent  Christian  life. 

JOSEPH  AGAR  BEET. 

Richmond.  ^         o  ^ 

UWiVE 

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OEC   4 


REC'D  Lr 

^12'65-12M 
SEP  1  7  2006 


[iD  21-100m-12,'46(A2012sl6)4120 


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